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L-OTUS AND JEWEL. 



LOTUS AND JEWEL. 



CONTAINING 



MN AN INDIAN TEMPLE," 

^'A CASKET OF GEMS," 
"A QUEEN'S REVENGE." 

aEitl) ©t|)er Poms. 



^ 



By EDWIN ARNOLD, c.s.i., 



AUTHOR OF "the LIGHT OF ASIA," " PEARLS OF THE FAITH," " INDIAN IDYLLS, 

"the song CELESTIAL," "THE SECRET OF DEATH," " POEMS," 

"INDIA REVISITED." 



BOSTON: 
ROBERTS BROTHERS. 

1887. 



TT^M-oix, 



Author's Edition. 



V 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

In an Indian Temple 1 

A Casket of Gems 51 

INTRODUCTION 53 

F. FIRE-OPALS . 55 

A. AMETHYSTS 59 

N. NEPHRITE, JADE 63 

N. NACRE AND PEARLS 66 

Y. YACUT, TOPAZES 71 

M. MOONSTONE 76 

A. AQUAMARINE 82 

R. RUBIES 85 

I. IDOCRASE, GARNETS 94 

A. AGATES 98 

A. AMBER AND LAZULITE 101 

D. DIAMONDS Ill 

E. EMERALDS 115 

L. LIGLTIE, JACYNTHS 122 

A. AN ALTIEUS 132 

I. lOLITE AND IVORY 139 

D. DAWN-STONE 148 

E. EUCLASE AND ESSONITE . 157 



VI CONTENTS. 

Other Poems. page 

LAILA 163 

IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY 164 

ATALANTA 167 

LIFE {from Victor Hugo) , . . 168 

Hadrian's address to his soul 168 

THE depths of THE SEA 169 

the heavenly SECRET 172 

AN ADIEU 173 

THE INDIAN JUDGE 174 

JEANNE {from Victor Hugo) 179 

"a RAJPUT nurse" 181 

zanouba's song {from the Persian) 188 

THE SNAKE AND THE BABY 189 

FROM A SIKH HYMN 194 

A FAREWELL {f'om the FrcncJi) 195 

A LOVE-SONG OF HENRI QUATRE 196 

FROM THE SANSKRIT ANTHOLOGY 198 

BASTi Singh's wife 199 

IN MEMORY OF S. S 205 

epitaph written for the same 206 

From the Sanskrit. 

grishma, or the season of heat 209 

A queen's revenge 217 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 



T T was a Temple, white and fair, 

Piercing the warm blue Indian air 
With painted cupola ; and set 
High on a hill-side, where there met 
Two streams — with sister-kiss of wave — 
Which rippled lightly down, to lave 
Our Deccan flats, gliding to grow 
Beema — and Kistna next — and flow 
By many a peopled plain and lea 
Into the Coromandel sea. 
And all along those shining banks 
Neem and acacia trees in ranks 
Shaded the flood, making cool homes 
Of leafy peace for all that comes 
To river-side, the pheasant-crow. 
The jay, the coppersmith whose blow — 



LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

In his green smithy stoutly plied 
Einging from dawn till eventide — 
Falls " klink, klank, klink," upon the ear ; 
And social weavers who, from fear 
Of thievish snakes, their nests suspend 
Swinging from every branchlet's end : 
There, too, the nine brown sisters talked ; 
The silver-feathered egret stalked ; 
The mucld-baug — " tiger of fish " — 
Shot from the air with arrowy swish 
And soared again — his pearly prey 
Clutched in red talons. All the day 
You heard the necklaced jungle-dove 
Cooing low songs of ceaseless love ; 
While, brooding near, his listening wife 
With soft breast warmed her eggs to life ; 
And, from the hot vault of the sky 
The circling kite made fierce reply ; 
For Love and Hate were neighbors still 
Even upon that holy hill ! 



Yet, in the Temple all seemed peace. 
There — sitting upon Shiva's knees — 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 

Parvati, shaped in gold, was seen, — 
With great eyes jewelled — Shiva's Queen : 
And nigh them, in the inmost dusk, 
Ganpati, known by broken tusk 
And trunk of elephant. No sound 
Stirred the deep quiet of that ground 
Where the Gods dwelled, save footfall rare 
Of Hindoo wife or maid, with fare 
Of colored rice or honeyed cake 
For Shiva's Priest, and vows to make 
Before the shrine in some dear name ; 
Save, also, when the pigeons came, 
A blue cloud, whirring from the wood 
To peck their daily Temple-food. 
If other echo silence broke 
'T was Govind murmuring Sanskrit shloke 
From ancient scrolls, or chanting prayers 
Three times a day, Govind who bears — 
Immeasurably wise — the weight 
Of threescore learned years and eight, 
Shiva's calm servant. Sometimes, you 
Would hear within that Temple, too, 
Gunga the Nautch-girl's anklets chime 
Dancing in some grave measured rhyme 



LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

Before the Gods, to throb of drum 

And low-played pipe, or, with deft thumb 

Twangling the tight-stretched vina-string 

'To yield shrill notes, while she did sing 

Of Love — as Nautchnees know — and praise 

Of lovers dead for Love ; and lays 

Of wounded hearts and piercing eyes ; 

Which gray Philosophies despise. 

Good friends were dancing girl and priest 
To one I knew, such friends — at least — 
As those may be whom Fortune gives 
Stars wide apart and differing lives : 
And Gunga to the Saheb would sing 
Sweet Indian songs for pleasuring ; 
And Govind — patient with their folly — 
Would listen, mild and melancholy, 
Till nobler moments rose, and then 
Speak wisely on the ways of men. 
The worlds of Gods, the wisdom hid 
In Upanishad, Pooran, Ved : 
Nay, and sometimes, with careful finger. 
On some dark text and comment linger. 
Sifting its sacred meanings o'er — 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 

As when in burning Ratnapoor 
The ruby-miners wash away 
Gravel and dust and yellow clay 
To leave at last one jewel bare, 
" Pigeon-blood " color, faultless, rare ! 
Which to the finder freedom brings. 
And glows, in seal or crown of kings. 

On such a day those sat together 
Under the sky of splendent weather 
Which shines in Poush, and held debate — 
Friendly or petulant — with weight 
Of Govind's lore at one time heard, 

And then— like some loud "tit-wee" bird 

The Nautch-girl mocking all save Love ; 
Anon, demure as any dove. 
Listening to wisdom ; and, again. 
Palling with laughter to some strain 
Ill-fitted to the theme : / 

But sit 
In Temple-shade, and judge of it ! 



8 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Sahcb. Pandit 1 You promised me to read to-day 
That Upanisliad where the Sanskrit tells 
The inner meanings of your mystic Word, 
The Word we mast not utter till we meet 
Privately here, with foolish ears away. 

Priest. Yea ! the Mandukya ! hast thou conned the 
text? 

S. It was so hard and rugged none might read 
As little taught as I. The words were plain, 
But not the sense. 'T was like a rain-time cloud 
Blown by the wind, sending far thunder forth, 
Which seemed to bring some message if man's ear 
Had wit to comprehend. 

P. It hath such wit 

If it will listen well ; and thou may'st learn 
More than thy Sages know beyond the seas, 
Pondering Mandukya ; for the leaves recite 
What lies within that Word we must not speak 
Where Mlechchas are. 

S. Well ! will you say it now ? 

P. I sin — the Book being so majestical, 
And thou no twice -born — if I teach thee this ; 
Save that thou lovest our Land, and lov'st to tread 
All paths of knowledge. But is Gunga there ? 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 

S. I saw her scattering pulse to feed the doves 
When I rode in, and — hark ! her vina plays ! 
You will not stay our study for the girl ? 



[Gimga enters, holding a Vina. She salutes the Priest and 
the Englishman.^ 

Gunga. Swasti ! my holy Eishi ! Maharaj, 
Salaam ! Bid me not go — Mahadev's girl — 
Who dances for the pleasure of the Gods, 
And brings the temple treasure. See, rupees ! 
I got them singing yesternight : mine eyes 
Pierced the Eao Saheb to the heart, which bled 
Plentiful gifts ; yet had he nought from me 
Save one kiss on the brow. Ah, Mcra Jan! 
My English Lord ; I know a song on that : 

[^She Inlays and sings."] 

" My Lotus-cycd — my Love that loves me now — 
She lets 7ne touch the tilha on her hroiv, 
And mouth as soft as are the Umha-leaves, 
And little rounded chin, ivhence love perceives 
The smooth hroivn neck sink to that tender place 
Where the heart heats between two hills of grace. 



lO LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

*' But, when I would have hissed the rose-red peaks 
Of those dear ^noicntains, — as a pilgriin seeks 
To worship on the highest spot — she cried : 
' Nay, nay ! my choli must not he untied ! ' 
>S^o trips she off, as from the tamarind-spray 
A light hen-ko'ily in her mates mid lay." 

S. Oh, Gunga ! if you vex the Pandit's soul 
He will not read, and I shall miss to know 
What says Mandukya. Sit and learn this lore, — 
If you may hear it. 

•" F. Nay, the girl can hear ! 

I am too old for anger, and she bears 
A gentle breast, and serves our Temple well, 
Though all too light of mind, and loose of tongue. 

G. Dear Master ! make me wise 1 Gunga is good 
When you will teach ; and what should Sahebs know 
A Nautchnee must not hear ? The gates are shut ; 
The Temple-birds are fed ; sometimes I think — 
When only they and I are in the Court, 
And I sit watching how they pace about, 
With red feet like to mine, all henna-stained, 
And barred backs, like my striped and painted cloth ; 
And jewels round their throats, like these I wear ! 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 1 1 

When I sit watching how they pace and plume, 
Bridling their necks, and making melting eyes. 
And sidling here and there, and spreading wings, 
And wooing and pursuing, with one song 
Of " love-love-love," and do not fear the Gods, 
But pick dropped rice from Shiva's awful feet ; — 
Oh, then I think these be dead Nautch-dancers 
Come back to the glad light to coo, and serve, 
And seek old lovers ! There 's a verse on that : 



[Gunga sings and plays'] 

" Besolve me — element hy element — 
Into the Void, God ! I am content, 
So I May only he, for Mm I love, 
The water in his tank, the ivinds that rove 
Around his brows, the light that serves his needs. 
The fire that warms him, and the soil that feeds." 

Say ! you two wise ones ! is not that as deep 
As your Vedantas ? 

S. But you do not tell 

Which of past many lovers is to drink 
Gunga made water ; cool his fevered brows 



12 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

With Gunga blowing sweet ; and cook his rice 
With Gunga, blazing bright ! 

G. The last, my Lord I 

All others I forget I 

P. Thou foolish Soul, 

Who, losing thine own house, would'st help to build 
Another perishable form ! What 's he. 
Or thou, or any, but a wave which lifts 
Out of Brahm's ocean — to sink back again ? 
Seek to grow one with Him, and rather say : 

" Yea ! dear Lord ! ive are one ivith Thee I since 

TlioiL art all in all ! 
And our lives in Thy Life must end ; yet dare 

L never eall 
Thee mine, as L am' Thine, God ! The Wave 

is still the Sea's ! 
The Sea is not the Wave's, therefor/ So /, and 

all of these!" 

S. That makes you solemn, Gunga ! Keep your eyes 
Curtained with lashes just one little while ! 
Now for this dread Word — OM. 

F. Oh! — not like that! — 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 1 3 

Eeach me the lota, girl ! that I may wash 

My mouth from stain : then, covering one hand, 

I raise this other to my lips, and say. 

With three half-breaths drawn in, — but slow and low — 

The three great matras of this mighty Word 

Which is as Silence spoken ! Hear st thou ? — OM ! — 

S. How are there three ? 

P. 'Tismadeof A, — U, — M: 

And last the vindu binding all in one. 
Which one is holiest of all uttered speech. 
Sweet to the Gods, consummate, good to say 
At all the Samdhyas, — when Night joineth Morn, 
Morning the Afternoon, and Evening Night ; 
Good to repeat before we read the Yeds, 
And when we finish ; locking all truths up 
As the womb holds the life, as rocks hide gems, 
And seeds the leaf, flower, fruit. A Scripture saith 
" OM is the bow ; the Arrow is the Soul ; 
Brahm is the object : he who shooteth straight 
Pierceth the target of the Uttermost, 
Attaineth end." " Meditate OM ! " it saith : 
" For, in that mystic light, the knowers know 
Brahm without body, parts, or passions — Brahm 
Joyful, Eternal, All-embracing, Pure." 



14 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

This Word hath all words in it, all three names 
Of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu ; all three worlds — 
Earths, Ethers, Heavens ; and all three modes of Time 
Past, Present, Future ; all three sexes, too, 
Yoni, and Lingam, and what yoketh both ; 
And all three Veds ! 

See ! on yon banyan-branch 
Which overhangs our wall, two paroquets ! 
There is a Scripture — third of Mundaka — 
Telleth of that, so as a man may read 
Who knoweth OM. Two Birds — it sayeth — sit, 
Always united, always equal-plumed. 
Perched on one fig-tree branch. This pecks the fruit ; 
That f eedeth not, but gazeth — witnessing ; — 
And She who eateth is the Human Soul, 
And he who watcheth is the Soul Divine, 
And Life the Fig-tree is, and Life's delights 
Its too sweet fruit. But, if one knoweth OM, 
The feeding bird looks on the watching bird — 
Its mate immortal, scorning those false fruits — 
And leaveth all, to join the '' All of All ; " 
Saved by right sight, lifted on wiser wings 
To better pleasures ; — as, see ! now they fly — 
Those green birds, — high into the stainless Blue ! 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 1 5 

Oh, look you, Friend ! when the great Gods would hear 

What Brahm was, unto Indra came they all 

Asking this thing, glorious as yonder clouds 

Which flock towards the throne of the sinking Sun, 

Euby and amethyst, and pearl and gold ; 

And Indra bade them sit beneath a tree — 

The Nyagrodha tree — nor spake he once. 

Through twenty, thousand moons, to that bright throng 

Of seated Gods ; but at the last he spake 

Saying, with fingers on his hushed lips, " OM ! " 

Then all the Gods went to their places wise. 

S. And you are wise, good Pandit 1 Yet I long 
To hear this scroll, and Gunga burns to hear ; 
She did not glean such treasure from the hand 
Of yon Eao Saheb ! 

[To the Nautch Girl'] 

Slack your vina-strings. 
And sit in closer ! You Ve no song for that : 

G. How know you, Maharaj ? There 's drum and 
dance 
For all the moods ; — Mahadev's girl can sing 
Many like this : 



l6 LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

[She shiffs and plays] 

" Because I have no served Thee right, oh, sweet and mighty 
Lord I 
Thou wilt not less deliver anee, and rest tuith Thee afford ; 
Who drinks of blessed Amrit, — though it he with dying 

lips, — 
Lives, and grows well and pure again, at the first drop he 
si 208." 

But let my music sleep ! 
Now will T listen ! 

P. I shall read the text 

In brief lines — as it runs — then make all plain. 
" Nama Paramdtmane Hari ! OM ! 
OM ! Amityetad Aksharam idan 
Sarvvan tasyopavydkhydnan hhut ! " — 
Which meaneth, " Glory in the Highest ! OM ! 
The Immeasurable ! This is immortal ! OM ! 
This is the One ! This word, interpreted, 
Is what was in beginning, and is now, 
And ever shall be — OM embraceth those — 
The threefold modes of Life, and what 's beyond 
Unmeted by them. OM is that, and all ! " 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 1 7 

" Sarvvan liyetadhralimdyamatma " — OM, 
So spoken of the All, is Brahm : the soul 
Is Brahm : yet here this soul goes chatuspdt 
"Four-footed;" owns conditions four. Observe 
How these be packed in OM ! 

S. Now, Gunga, list ! 

Why do you smile ? 

G. I wonder why I sang 

These wistful words, of late, to one I loved : 

\_She sings and plays] 

" What should I say at hour of parting hateful 1 
If I sigh ' leave me not ! ' that seems ungrateful ! 
If I should whisp)eT ' go ' it sounds so coldly ; 
And to cry ' stay ' ivere to covimand too boldly ; 
* Go, if thou wilt, — stay, if thou wilt ! ' — this savors 
Of heedless heart ; while full of Fate's ill favors 
*T would he to murmur, ' If we part, I die ! ' 
Lest that fall true : alas ! I hnoio not — / — 
What thing to utter ! Teach me some wise ivord 
To say luhen you must leave me, Dearest Lord ! " 

Now had I known — " Om " was the word to speak. 
Which all thoughts compasses. 



l8 LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

S. You feather, blown 

From pea-hen's neck at pairing-time, be still ! 
Now, Pandit ! tell us these conditions four. 

P. Frathamah 2)ddah, Sir I VaUvdnara, 
" The first condition is * Vaisvanara.' " 
Now, this word signifieth " Consciousness,** 
Common to all men (vaisva-nar), and so 
Intendeth common waking life, that state 
Wherein we eat and drink, and see and smell, 
And hear and touch and taste. The holy script 
Sayeth, " Vaisvanara is waking life ; 
Whereof the knowledge is of outward things 
Cheating the sense. Seven organs hath this life. 
And mouths nineteen. It feedeth on the Gross." 

G. Oh, Shiva ! Nineteen mouths ! How one might 
kiss ! 

S. Which are the organs seven ; and which those 
mouths 
Twenty less one ? 

P. The books speak diversely ; 

Yet our chief sages teach the organs seven 
Of waking life, are — for the Head the Heavens, 
Tor Eye the Sun, for Breath the moving Wind, 
For Heart the Ether, for the Humors, Sea, 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 1 9 

For Feet the Earth, for Heat the inner Fires. 
Also those nineteen mouths are nineteen doors 
Whereby the world hath access to the Self ; 
And these be — the five modes of Intellect, 
The five Sense-gateways, the five Vital airs ; 
With Mind, Will, Individual Consciousness, 
And Chittam, which is sense behind the sense, 
That whereby sight of eye, and touch of skin, 
And taste, and smell, and sound are cognited. 
Such is Vaisvanara — the waking Life — 
The letter A denoteth it in AUM. 
>S'. And what is U ? 

P. It standeth in the Word 

For Taijasa, second of living states, 
Which hath its name from tcjas — " brilliancy," 
Being that gleam which thou shalt see with eyes 
Fast shut, when all the gloom danceth in sparks, 
And, on the inner lids the lingering light 
Paints stars and rings of spangled fantasy ; 
For Taijasa is slumber, when we dream, 
And the scroll saith : it hath the organs seven, 
The gates nineteen, but knoweth inner things, 
And — pramviktabliuk — in sightless sleep 
It " feedeth on the Subtle." 



20 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

G, Ah! I know 

Your Taijasa ! when I have danced all night, 
And draw my cloth, at last, across my eyes, 
I see the Temple-lamps pale and more pale 
Inside my lids, all down the road to sleep ; 
Till at the end there comes a softer light 
Which needs no eyes ; and there I lie, and dream ! 

>S' What dream you of, my Gungabaee ? 

G. Of gold 

So much it bursts my cloth ! of beauteous gems 
Hung on my neck by some one loving me ; 
Or 't is a Prince who sends me cardamums 
Which mean \' your breath is Heaven ! " or sandal-wood 
Chipped small, which is to say, " In seeing you 
I become water ! " or stick-cinnamon 
Which signifies " my life is thine ! " Sometimes 
I dream the gods rise from their seats, and wink 
Their jewelled eyes, and tell me where to find 
Blue lotus for their shrines, or where there lies 
A buried pot of mohurs ; sometimes, too, 
I see two elephants that fight and fight 
Without their mahoots — that means death ! or see 
Lotuses grown in sand, and that means love 
From unexpected places ; or I spy 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE, 21 

Holes in the moon and serpents with ten mouths, 
And those, I know, bring ill I But it is good 
To dream of fire-flies, mirrors, thrones, and fish, 
And rice, and rainbows ; yestereve I dreamed 
A black calf sucked a brindled heifer's bag. 
And that, be sure, shows losses ; so I brought 
A jar of milk to-day for Parvati. 

F. Yea, Nautchni, yea ! that is the waking light 
Glimmering in visions ; that is Taijasa ! 
Yet so — if thou wert wiser — shouldst thou see 
Innermost things, ev'n dreaming ; nay, and so 
Thou, too, dost pass into a deeper sleep, 
Life's third Condition. 
S, And the name of this ? — 

P. The name, Sahebji ! is Prajna, letter M 
Of those three letters of the mighty Word. 
Here, very plain our ancient writing runs ! 
Yatra supno na Jcanchan kamayatS 
Kaman, na TxCinchan svaiJnan pasyati — 
" When he asleep desireth no desire, 
Dreameth no dreams, that is the perfect sleep — 
Sushicpnan — that is Prajna ; then he lives ! " 
" He, lying thus," it saith, " lieth, grown one 
With all which is ; that which he knows he knows 



22 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

By knowledge unified ; his peace is peace 
Perfect, except for ceasing ; bliss he tastes 
As taste the Gods, and — chetomukh — his mouth 
Is Wisdom's portal. He is Lord of all, 
All-sharing, ruling inner things, a soul 
Whence springeth life as from a Yoni — so 
He maketh and unmaketh." Such is M, 
The third great matra. 

S. Yet resolve me this, 

How " maketh and unmaketh ? " what is life 
Its senses chained in sleep ? 

P. Suffer me. Sir ! 

To answer from Brihaddraramjaka 
Where Eaja Janaka holds deep discourse 
With Yajnavalkya, and the good Prince asked, 
" By what light lives the Soul ? " The Brahman said 
It liveth here by sunlight, using eyes ; 
And lacking sunlight, by the gleam of the moon ; 
And, if there be no moon, or sun, by fire ; 
And if the fire fails, then by sound or touch ; 
But if no sound is heard, and all be void, 
Then is the Soul sufficing light to Soul. 
For dwelling in the hollow of the heart. 
Girt by the senses as a king by slaves. 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 23 

Being left alone it riseth, lights its lamp, 
And, wandering down the borders of two worlds, 
Seemeth to think, yet watcheth what is thought ; 
Seemeth to move, but stays unchangeable. 
Then fall away from Soul the ills it took 
Assuming form ; like Handmaids, Sleep and Night 
Strip it of those ; it goes majestical. 
And sees two lives, on this and that side ; one 
Here of this Earth, and m another World 
Another not yet known, between which winds — 
With banks and shoals that shift, now nearer Life, 
Now nearer Death — the placid channel of Sleep, 
Like a black, shadowy, hidden, windless stream 
Whose silent waters lave both lands, and bear 
The Spirit on its tranquil boat of flesh 
Hither and thither. Gliding wistfully 
Down that dividing flood the Soul, secure, 
Seeth both shores, and bringeth what it will 
From that to this, and taketh what it will, 
And " maketh and unmaketh." Horses, roads, 
Or chariots are there none in Shadow-Land, 
Yet the Soul willeth these, and see ! it drives, 
Horsed, glorious, eager, through the boundless Murk! 
No bliss, no kiss, no large delights be there 



24 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Of beautiful kind faces lit with love ; 
Of soft arms shutting into Paradise ; 
Yet the Soul wills there be, and lo ! that Dark 
• Is filled with companies of Apsaras, 

Lovely and sweet all mortal maids beyond — 
Sweeter than Eambha whom Eavana wooed ! 
There are no tanks, no palaces, no trees. 
Nor feasts, nor dances ; but the Soul doth will, 
And, see ! the Dark grows gracious with great walls 
Built on the void, ramps of red gold, and domes 
Of cloud-poised marble, and fair cloistered courts 
Where wave the feathers of the palms, and flit 
Swift glistering shoals of fish in lilied pools ; 
And dancers, rosy-footed, and bright-eyed, 
Melt the glad soul to love. 

Subduing flesh 
By spell of sleep he — not himself asleep — 
Sees his sense slumbering, and moves away 
Free as the mated bird launching from branch. 
The Life-breath keeps the nest — the Soul flies off. 
To go and come in that wide Eealm of Eest 
Making its manifold shapes, unmaking them ; 
Eejoicing in the arms of Dream-maidens ; 
Laughing with lovely friends, moving at will 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 2$ 

On wondrous wings of thought ; arriving swift 

At splendid sights, or strange, or tragical, 

And sometimes terrible — for fear is dear 

As well as joy ! Yet, though thou know'st that Land, 

Thou shalt not meet the Soul there, nay — nor mark 

Where in the viewless vast it wandereth. 

Therefore, let no man wake one suddenly, 

Lest Soul return not well from its long way ! 

And Yajnavalkya said : The Soul, — thus roaming, 
Thus, like a falcon, flying here and there 
From cliff to cliff of sleep's far boundaries, 
Seeing the glad and sad, the old and new, 
The good and ill, — presently wearieth. 
Then doth it fold its pinions and sink down 
Into Soul's nest, reaching the dreamless Peace 
Prajna. There follow not to that deep state, 
Gladness or sadness, good or evil. Life 
Is lifted out of living — Soul grows Brahm ! 
Nor let one say " it seeth — heareth not ! " 
That which doth see and hear is Self ; — eye, ear 
Were instruments, laid down : who used them keeps 
Light of his own, sound of his own, touch, taste 
Other than ours ! 



26 LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

Such is tlie letter M, 
Third matra of the Holy Word. 

aS'. I ask, 

Eight-learned Friend ! why Good and Evil cease 
Because Soul sleeps ? 

F. Surely such names subsist 
In worlds of " thine and mine," of " this and that," 

Of " praise and blame ! " Where all things melt in 

one 
Evil and Good are fled, to plague no more. 

/SI Well ! who may judge ? In England — over-sea, 
Our Gunga here, that is so kind and gay ; 
Who loves the Gods, and gives to all the poor, 
And would not hurt a gray gnat, if it stung ; 
And built the Dharma-Sala (Nay ! you did !), 
And knows all dances, and a hundred songs ; 
And holds her trade as honest as the best : — 
With us she would rank viler than with you 
Yon Mhar, that must not touch a Brahman's cloth. 

G, By Shiva's snakes ! Out there are all so pure ? 
S. Not all ! Yet we have built the House of Love 

With Christian stones, and each man chooses love 
Not by some other's will — as here with you — 
But for himself ; and each will have his love — 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 27 

If sucli may be — white as the Champak-bud 
When first its green cuxd splits. 

G. And fares it well 

With those cold blossoms, in the homes they find ? 

S. Yes, Gunga ! nobly well in honest homes ! 
For lovely is the flower of chastit}^ 
Lasting its fragrance, and its fruit more fair 
Than chance fruits borne on boughs whence all may pluck. 
And goodly is the air of Liberty 
Lor all, but most for lovers, seeing Love 
Knows more than Wisdom, and because young hearts 
Choose better than their elders, being taught 
By Nature, 'ware of inmost sympathy, 
And subtle suitings of this blood and that 
To blend together for fresh human veins. 
So life's long road goes happier for the grace 
Of good beginnings ! You and I may praise 
The white flower on the rock we cannot reach ! 
Oh, and full well I know what happy hearths 
Are here in India, and what stainless wives 
Live their sweet lives and die their gentle deaths 
Under your suns. 

G. My mother vowed me this — 

A Deva-Dasa, servant to the God — 



28 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

To save my father's life, when she did go 
Great with me. And my father rose, made whole 
After that vow ; and, then, they married me — 
New-born — with garlands and the mangal-shloke 
Wife to the " Dagger; " and they laid red rice 
Upon my head, and taught me how to dance, 
Play vina, plait my hair with flowers, and make 
Great eyes for money. Must I be ashamed ? 

B. Not before me, my Sister ! It were well 
Certain most faultless ones were half as good, 
As gentle-souled ! 

But, Govind ! at the last 
Is not Good good, and Evil evil ? Brahm — 
If He be All in All — must deal as Lord 
With all three states of OM. ISTote, too, that verse 
Of Katlm U]jan%shad, " What is here 
Visible in our world, is also there 
In Brahm's invisible world ; and what is there 
That same is here unseen." 

P. It is so writ ! 

>S^. Then, by good leave, your Indian systems lack 
Two points we Westerns boast — the love of man 
For God's love. Who hath made him ; and this Law — 
That because Eight is right we follow Eight. 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 29 

P. Give me example, Sir ! that I may judge. 

B, Well ! I remember one ! But tell me first 
Ts it good Hindoo rule a wife should live 
Faithful to death unto her husband's bed ? 

P. Yea, by a hundred Shasters ! 

^^ Yet again, 

Is it good Hindoo rule if one who starves 
Craves food, the householder shall surely give ? 

P. Yea ! and our Scriptures say : " If one shall bar 
The door against an asker, when he goes 
Hungry away, he leaves his own sins there. 
And takes the good deeds of the householder." 

>S'. But which of these two duties is the first ? 

P. :t^either is first or last. Both must be kept ! 

B. Then judge hereof. There dwelt a householder 
In Gaya, where the twin streams wander down — 
Nilajan and Mohana. Just and mild 
This Brahman was, dutiful unto all, 
In life's bright prime, a goodly man to view. 
Whom fairest wives might worship. So, indeed, 
Sita loved Balaram. No new-wed bride 
Ever more gladsome paced the seven steps. 
Shared the dyed rice, or wore the golden cloth, 
And iron bangle : nor, in all that land 



30 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Shone sweeter face bearing the marriage-mark 
Stam^Ded with vermilion. These two loved — I say — 
Like Krishna and like Eadha. Oh, you know ! 
At coming home, when the white stars peep forth, 
And all your Indian sky turns purple peace, 
'T was *' Sonarchund ! My moon of gold ! art safe ? 
I lived with half my life, whilst thou wert gone ! 
Ah, didst thou think on me all day ? " And he, 
" My Pomegranate ! my Pearl I whose arms are Heaven, 
And mouth as sweet as new Keora-buds, 
How could I think of you, my heart being here ? " 
G. Why, that 's a song we sing ! The air goes so : 

\_She sings and 2'>lciys'] 

" Think on 7ne, Dear ! you said, at parting ; 
But this I did not do ; 
Without my heart I coidd not thinh^ 
And it remained ivith you!' 

S. Well ! thus they loved. But then the Famine fell 
Indra was angry, and his brazen skies 
Cooled with no cloud, and let no sweet rain fall. 
In wood and nullah forest creatures died 
Pining for drink : the shyest beasts drew in 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 3 I 

To lap at village wells ; the thirsting snake 

Crept to the mud-hole, where the snake-bird drooped 

Too parched to strike ! The green crops died to gray, 

And famished people fed on jungle-meats — 

Berries and roots ■ — for half a seer of rice 

Sold at two annas, and jowaree went 

Thirty rupees the candy ! Balaram 

Nourished his quarter while the bags held grain, 

Then fell to lack and leanness, with the rest ; 

To sorer lack, because, when there was food 

Upon hio household fire, the good man lied 

A loving lie, saying: "■ I ate to-day 

With Kerupunt — orLakhsman ! " — so that she 

Might take her fill, and keep her beauty bright. 

Was one, inside the city, loved this wife 
Unhonestly — Vittoo the wealthy Sett, 
Who sold the starving towns-folk pulse, yet kept 
His grain-pits filled hoarding the precious store. 
And many a time — when Sita came to buy — 
The man would say, measuring less niggard seers, 
- " Oh, Eose of our sad garden ! rice is dear ; 
Hardly, except to thee, have I to sell ! 
By Shiva ! but I cheapen this for thee ! 



32 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Yet wouldst thou once — once only — of fair grace — 
Be kind to him who worships where he sees 
The foot-mark of thy feet ; once, only once ! — 
Lest Death come ere my soul's desire be had ; — 
Then would I load thy cloth with bhat and dall, 
Asking no price." And she would answer, proud, 
" I hate thee, Vittoo, for thy wicked love ; 
My Lord will kill thee if I speak of this, 
Or sit and starve rather than buy from thee. 
Give me my grain, and let me go ! " Whereat 
The Sett's heart burned in secret, and his gains 
Joyed him no more ; for, always, day and night 
The face of Sita drew him like a spell. 

P. Ah, that a mortal man will sin so deep ! 

>S'. Now — one day — at the worst ; when Balaram 
Was gone a-seeking bambu-seed to eat ; 
And Sita's self had tasted nought from dawn. 
The last rice being cooked, the last gem sold. 
The last poor cowrie spent, there came a Sage 
Asking this wife for food. Eeverend he seemed. 
Of pious mien and speech — a Eishi, sure ! 
Wearing the saffron-colored garb, and marked 
With Shiva's lines upon his wrinkled brow. 
" Giv e me to eat. Fair Dauditer ! for I die 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 33 

To-day, at sunset, if I touch no meal ! " 

So craved he, with low voice, blessing the house, 

And therewith sank within the threshold-stone, 

Piteous to note, so holy and so wan ; 

This hope his last ! Then sprang the bitter tears 

To Sita's gentle eyes ; faltered her lips ; 

Beat her true heart as though to burst. — Dear Heaven ! 

What shall she say ? If she shall say, " This house 

Is emptied, Father ! not one bajri-ear 

Is left thy servants ! " — then the grief, the shame. 

To see liim creep away, whom Shastras bid 

Succor and honor ! And, if she shall say, 

" My Lord is absent, he will bring us food ! " 

Who knows ? who knows ? Balaram may not find 

Till nightfall, or may come bringing no meal ; 

And ere Ihat hour the Eishi will lie dead ! 

But oh ! if now — to save this life — she say, 

" I have no grain, yet, Maharaj ! I know 

The means to win some;" (Gunga ! had you felt 

Her veins throb while she thought it !) would he not 

Inquire the means, and, learning, choose to die 

Piather than she should stain her soul, and truck 

Heart's love and household joys and blameless name 

For half a maund of rice ! She must not tell ! 



34 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

He shall not die ! Ah, Balaram, forgive ! 

Ah, High Gods ! help her find the rightful path ! 

She led that holy man tenderly in, 

And, sweetly smiling, wiped her tears away, 

And sighed : " Be pleased to rest ! thy handmaid goes 

To fetch thee food ; presently thou shalt eat 1 " 

G. Now, stay not, Saheb ! This is more than songs ! 

P. Yes, Nautchni ! But, I wonder, did she go ? 

>S'. She drew her sari round her head, and stepped 
Into the street. Time was, when Sita passed, 
ISTeighbors would give her greeting, pleased to hear 
The music of her anklets, glad to catch 
The sunlight of her glance ; now went she sad, 
No friend regarding ; for the ways were void ; 
Or, if a foot- fall sounded, 't was of men 
Haggard and gaunt, who moaned, with lips drawn tight, 
" Hast thou to help us, Sister ? " stalking on 
When, for all answer — with her tears in flood — 
She stretched an empty palm. Once and again 
A mother with lean arms held hidi her babe, 
Saying : " Buy this, sweet Lady ! for so much 
As one small pot of rice, before I die ! " 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 35 

And, thrice, in mid-bazaar, she met unveiled 

With faces wild, wearing a ragged cloth. 

Stripped of their gems, and gnawing food unfit. 

Proud purdah women, whom in days gone by 

No stranger's eye had looked on ; now they walked 

Hungry and unabashed, their beauty marred, 

Their soft feet stained with mire. No townsman asked, 

"Balaram's wife, where goest thou ? " The dead 

Lay silent, and the dying found no voice ; 

But unto Sita's throbbing heart it seemed 

As though the sun glared hard, as though the wind 

Went mocking her, blowing her sari back 

To strip the harlot's face. All down the street 

House windows gazed upon her ; Peepal-trees — 

Which know the things men do, and tell the Gods — 

W^hispered her desperate deed with rustling leaves 

One to another, and the clamorous crows 

Cawed scorn against her. 

So with painful steps 
Came she to Vittoo's door. 

The Sett salaamed : 
" Fortunate day ! " he cried. " Good day and glad 
Which brings again to us that lotus-face ! 
In what thing may thy servant pleasure Thee ? " 



36 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And Sita — hiding all except her eyes — 
Made answer, si)eaking slow and shamedly, 
" There is come one who must not be denied 
Unto our house ; he craveth food : — will die 
If none be given ; and we have none to give. 
Thou hast desired me : measure now for me 
Six seers of rice, and tie it in my cloth 
Asking no money, for our last is spent : — 
And this night, when the houses are all shut 
I will come hither, — as thou prayedst me." 

No word he spake, but with a trembling mouth 
Kissed her feet, bending down ; then filled her cloth. 
Not measuring the grain. So Sita came 
Back to her home, and set the chatty on, 
And — boiling rice — served to that holy man, 
^Who ate with brightening eyes, and tpok farewell; 
First raising to his grateful lips the hem 
Of Sita's garment : " Be it well with thee. 
Fair Daughter I " said he, " for thy charity. 
Here and hereafter ! " 

Entered Balaram 
Presently — bringing jungle-roots ; but laid 
His bitter food aside, smelling the rice. 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 37 

" Oh, gem of women ! " cried he, " whence is this ? 
How hast thou conjee, when I could not find 
One friend in all the town, with half a seer ? " 

. " Dear Lord ! " Sita replied, " judge me herein 

Ere thou dost eat ! There came a holy man, 

Of pious mien and speech — a Eishi, sure — 

Eeverend to see, wearing the saffron robe, 

Who craved for food, and moaned, ' Give, or I die ! ' " 

All this she told— and how she cast about, 

Not having food, nor daring to endure 

Her Lord's hearth should be shamed by churlish deed — 

" For thou, I know," said she, " had given thy blood 

To help a Eishi ! " — how — her Lord being gone — 

Means must be found. Then piteous she went on : 

" Thou didst not think — I could not tell — forgive ! 

Vittoo the Sett these many days hath cast 

Vile eyes of longing on me, praying me — 

Once, and once only, — lest he die unjoyed — 

To grant him that — which is for thee alone. 

And I have spit upon him, praying thus. 

B^^t now — in such sore need — judge me, dear Lord ! 

Seeing that holy man at point to die. 

Thyself away, and nothing left, — save this. 



38 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

I fetched six seers from Yittoo — promising 

That this night, when the houses are all shut, 

I would go there, and give — what he hath asked." 

Silent he stood awhile, with limbs braced hard. 
And breath caught back, and blood chilled in his veins. 
As when afield th' unwitting antelope 
Sees the lithe cheetah spring, and knows it death. 
The next fierce instant in his breast his hand 
Tumbled the handle of his jungle-knife, 
And settled where to strike — there ! 'twixt the breasts ! 
Straight to that bartered heart ! Then, a long sigh 
Brake from his soul, and — as she sank, full length, 
Sobbing upon his feet — the rage — the hate. 
The tempest of his thunderous misery, 
His husband's wrath — his man's fond passion — passed 
From lips and eyes, as, on a stormy noon 
The shadows of the lightning-cloud, which lay 
Black on the hill-side, flit ; and sunshine gleams. 

" Thou hast done well ! " he said, with breaking voice, 
" And rightly, Sita ! though I would the flames 
Had fed on me ere this. It was not meet 
To let the Guru die not possible ! 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 39 

And thou hadst no more means ; — and I away. " 

I thought to kill thee, Dear ! whilst thou didst speak ; 

Then thought to slay the Sett ; — but that is past ! 

Thou hast not sinned, Fair Wife ! seeking to pay 

My duty's price, and finding nought to give 

Save thy sweet self. 'T is hard we lived for this 

Who will be dead anon ; yet we should keep — 

Must keep — our plighted word. Therefore to-night 

Thou art this man's ! I part thy savory rice 

Into two portions ; one I bid thee eat — 

Thou must not faint before thou payest our debt — 

This other I will take to Yenkatrao 

Whose children famish. Now then, dress thy hair ! 

No ! not i' the old way ; not that pretty way 

When I was wont to plunge my lips in its silk ; 

But as they use who do this trade; and scent 

Thy breasts with musk, and paint thy lids, and stain 

Thy feet and hands with mehndi. 

" See ! it rains ! 
When pity comes too late the skies relent : 
There will be plenty soon for all, and peace. 
Except for me ! Yet, since it is not fit 
Thou shouldst go street-stained to the merchant's house, 



40 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

AYitli mire on thy fair feet — myself will bear 
His concubine to Yittoo. Speak not ! Dress ! " 

And, when Night fell, and all the people slept 
Lulled by the blessed rain — sounded a knock 
At Vittoo's door — waiting ajar : a voice 
Spake softly : " Kholo ! open ! I am here ! " 

So, — lighted by the flickering lamp which burned 
At Ganpat's shrine — the Sett beheld her stand — 
Beautiful Sita, Sita with dove's eyes, 
Sita whom all his soul loved and desired, 
Come to be his ! Joyous he led the way 
To where an inner room shone bright with lights, 
And gay with painted walls, and richly set 
With luxury of yielding beds and shawls 
Woven with silk and silver. " Sit, I pray ; 
And suffer that I fetch thee foot-water. 
My goddess ! who hast deigned to pace afoot 
Unto her worshipper ! " Thus quoth the Sett 
Half glad, half fearful of his sighing guest, 
So silent, and so mournful, and so fair. 
But, when he would have laved those beauteous feet 
Look ! not a journey-stain ! not one small speck 
Upon them of bazaar-mud ! — and such rain ! 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 4 1 

" Now art tliou surely Goddess ! " Yittoo said : 
" And thou hast hither flown on hidden wings, 
Straight down from Swarga : else, how is there rain 
On thy smooth head, but no mire on thy feet ? " 

Sita gave answer — very sorrowful — 
" My husband bore me hither — knowing all ! " 

What think ye now that Sett did, hearing this ? 

P. I cannot tell. He lived to call in debts ! 

G. We cannot tell I Oh, Saheb of Sahebs, go on ! 

>S'. He set the water-pot aside, and bowed 
His forehead to her feet — touching his eyes, 
His brow, his mouth, his breast, with trembling hands ; 
Making the eight prostrations. Then, he rose 
Clasping his palms together, while he paced 
Thrice round her, as ye circle Parvati 
Eeverently worshipping ; then meekly spake : 
" I am a sinful man, who dared to grasp 
At beauty all beyond me, as is Heaven ; 
At goodness so above me as the stars 
Are higher than my roof ; yet, dare I not 
Do wrong to him, who did himself this wrong, 



42 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Bearing thee hither — out of noblest soul, 
Out of such truth that it makes false men true. 
Lad J ! go free of me ! and pray thy Lord 
That he forgive ! Say Vittoo writes thy debt 
' Paid ' in his books — with face upon the dust, 
And lips imploring pardon, as from Gods ! " 

So came she spotless home ; and the rain fell 
Through fifteen days ; and rice sold cheap again. 

ISTow who did well herein, and who did ill ? 

G. Oh, Shiva ! the sweet tale ! — By Chittor's curse 
I know it is a sin if holy saints 
Ask food and none be given ; yet, were I he — 
Rather such sin, — whatever Manu says — 
And Death, and Narak after ! than to lose 
Were I that man — the woman I so loved ! 

P. I know it is a sin — as Manu saith — 
To loose the bond of marriage, and to sell 
Love for a gift ; but yet — had I been there — 
Eather than turn away that saint unfed — 
Were I the woman, and his strait so sore — 
I had done even as Sita, unabashed ! 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 43 

B. See now, you stand on either side ! and Eight 
Splits midway, on the edge of Manu's rules. 
I think — interpreting a Western mind — 
The wife did evil, helping life to live 
At cost of Love and Fame, dearer than Life : 
The husband evil, paying wrongful debt 
With coin which none should ask, and no man give : 
And most I praise Vittoo the grain-seller, 
Who sinned in heart, yet had such heart to see 
The loveliness of honor — Manu's sort ! 

-P. We must observe a promise ! Azuf Jah 
Marching to war — only a Mussulman ! — 
Made compact with our Waghur cattle-men ; 
Wrote it in gold, upon a copper plate. 
And kept its every line ; even now they sing : — 

'^ Drinlo full of my rivers ; 

Graze free in my fields ; 
Strijy grass from my roofs 

If no grass the soil yields : 
Three inurclers a day 

I forgive you : — hit, heed 
That your bullocks stand ready 

When Azuf hath need I " 



44 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Now give me leave, good Sir ! for I must say 
My sun-down Mantras in the hhijit-hhana. 
I will return ere Gunga finds her tongue; 
That light mind flutters round your story still ! 

[Exit GoviND. 
G. Indeed, I mused, when the gray Pandit rose, 
Why I, too, feel — being but a dancing-girl — 
Vittoo was best ! There must be happiness 
In that white world of Virtue, whence you brought 
The tender tale : but let hard thought alone ! 
At Gwalior the Nautchnees killed a tree. 
Where Akbar's singer lay, for love of him, 
And of his tree — plucking the leaves away 
To make their voices beautiful — till — look ! 
There was no tree ! so may we pluck our lives 
Leafless with thinking. Shall we laugh again 
Till Govind comes ? We did not finish OM, 
And you look weary : — let me sing you this ; — 
A young BihCiri taught the words to me : — 

[GuJiga 2'>lctys and sings] 

CJioti Giudlini — A milkmaid sped 
Slender, and bright and hroivn ; 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 45 

With a chatty of curds on her neat little heady 

To sell in Mathura town. 
" Rama ! ho, Eama ! ivho huys of me 

Curds as white as the ivory ? " 

Jahan dhareU — when — at noon-tide, 

She set down the chatty, to rest, 
Tahan tamua — up to her side, 

In silver and satin dressed, 
Eama ! ho, Rama ! canters the King ; 

" Sweet little milkmaid, marheting ! " 

Agu ! hokh agio ! — "forwards go ! 

Ride on your road, my Lord ! 
If you lay hands on my sari so. 

The curds ivill s'patter your sword ! 
Rama ! ho, Rama ! the curds will fall 

On silver, and satin, and jewels, and all !" 

" Tora leJthe — you think it is curd 

Tliat falls from your milk-ioot, Bear I 
Mora lekhe — I call it ahsurd 

A goddess such stuff should hear : 
Rama ! ho, Rama ! H is amrit instead 

Which Heaven rains down on your heautiful head ! " 



46 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

S. Thanks, Gunga ! Koils Anting love in Spring 
Pipe nothing softer ! but our Sage returns. 

[GovixD re-enters. 
Now, Sir ! we know that A, and U, and M, 
In this great Word, are three-fold states of life, 
VaisVanara the first — the waking state ; 
Next Taijasa, which is the sleep with dreams ; 
And thirdly Prajna, where man slumbers deep 
Seeing no dreams, but floathig, quit of flesh. 
On that still border- flood whose waters lave 
Life on one bank, and on the other Death. 
Now would we hear, ap Id mihrhdni se — 
Of your kind favor — how the three combine. 

P. I read on from Mandukya : — The Fourth 
Is that which holdeth all the three ; beinsj Life 
Past living, sleeping, dreaming, dying — OM ! 
He who is there is Brahman, knowing all — 
Not as we know, peeping inside and out — 
Not as we understand. " Wise " or " unwise " 
Are words without a meaning for the Soul 
Lifted so high ! It seeth, all unseen ; 
Perceiveth unperceived ; not understood, 
It comprehendeth ; never to be named. 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE, 4/ 

Never made palpable ; not limited; 

The testimony of it being Itself, 

Itself made one with the One Soul, wherein 

Those states are each transcended and absorbed, 

Changeless, rejoicing, passionless, pervading ! 

And this Eternal Soul of Life, the Self, 
Is named in naming OM ; and OM is named 
From those three matras, A and U and M. 
A is Vaisvanara, the Waking-State ; 
And U is Taijasa, the State of Dreams; 
And M is Prajna, sleep deeper than dream. 
Where the soul wakes, and moves in larger light, 
KnowinG^ a farther knowledge ; OTOwintr one 
With HIM WHO IS! 

OM indivisible, 
Embracing those divisions, — hereby grasped — 
Is Soul, the Life of Life, the All, the True, 
Changeless, rejoicing, passionless. 

Say OM 
Solemnly, with stilled lips, and mouth made clean ! 

He with his Soul entereth the Soul of Souls 
Who hath perceived these things — who hath perceived ! 



48 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

S. Pandit ! I humbly thank you for my part 
In this most ancient lore, and mystical ! 
I make namaslMv with a grateful heart ; 
Keep me in yours ! Peace go with you ! ]\Iy horse 
Waits near the gate, bid them lead Wurdah round. 

\_Exit GoviND. 
And, Gunga ! till he comes, wind up your strings 
And sing some last things now of love and tears. 
For if those Scripts are right our lives are wrong ; 
Yours Chanel hi toohri I yours, my "Beam of the Moon," 
And mine, who toil to teach so foolishly, 
Being untaught. Yet what a goodly earth 
To seem all nought ! What skies of vaulted gold 
Vainly to roof the lives so mocked and scorned ! 
What furniture of beauty and delight 
Embellishes this world we are to hate 
At high command of old Philosophies ! 
Samojhta ? Sister ! — did you understand ? 
These pearls which you do sweetly take of me, 
And the small hands that clutch them, and the eyes 
Which shine so bright, counting the pretty beads, 
Are false "as fancy — void — things that be not ! 
Yet, how much surer than the surest joy 
Of Taijasa, or Prajna, seem your lips, 



IN AN INDIAN TEMPLE. 

Your black braids, plaited with the jasmine buds, 
Your quick brown fingers toying on the strings ; 
And what neat feet to be illusions ! Play ! 
Find something sad but sweet ; for Life is false, 
And Love is false, and only shadows live ! 
And we must — little Gunga ! — melt to Gods, 
Who were so well-content, women and men ; 
Must part, and pass, and dream : I know not — OM ! 
G. Jo hulxlim, ]\Iaharaj ! thy slave obeys : 



[_Gunga sings and 2^l<^ys'\ 

" Ncnj ! if thou must depart, thou shall depart ; 

But u'hy so soon — oh, Hcart-Uood of my heart ? 

Go then ! yet — going — turn and stay thy feet. 

That I may once more see that face so siucct : 

Once more — if never more ; for swift days go 

As hastening uriters from- their fountains fiovj ; 

And ichether yet again shcdl meeting he 

Who knows 1 who hiows ? Ah / once more turn to me ! " 

S. Who know\s, — who knows ? Life a vain breeze 
that blow^s I 

4 



so LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

\Giinga sings again'] 

G, " Blovj, gentle Breeze ! from my Beloved's place ; 
And let the airs touch mine, which touched her face: 
For this is much to the fond lover — this 
Is food to live on — one ivind-ivafted hiss I" 

S. Oh, Bulbiil of the hill, sing one verse more 
And then — Salaam ! 

G. And then Salaam ! my Lord ! 

[^She lays aside her Vina, and sighing, sings'\ 

" Not seeing you, I inne to see ! and, when I see, to know 
That you will go away again fills me with fear and woe ; 
No joy of love I find in love, if yon he near or far ; 
Longing to have you hy me, and dreading ivhcn you are ! 
Life is not life, if we must live thinking of love's last day ; 
Oh, never come, my Love and Life ! or never go away ! " 



A CASKET OF GEMS. 

\_Partly written in 1870.] 



A CASKET OF GEMS. 



T\EIGN, Siocethcart ! deign to take what true love sends, 

Its daily gift set fair in gentle song ; 
Where — if verse fail — heart' s faith woidd vmke amends, 
So earnest, speech, cd hest, must do it icrong. 

All lonely as I sit, a fancy raised 

Lightens the heavy hour's dull ineomijleteness : — 
Why is she siocet and good save to he j)raised, 

Or I a singer save to praise her sweetness ? 

Some u'hispcr fro7n the Silence ! Who can sayt 

Poets, before, have found neiv music so ! 
At least, hereby, whcd I thought, day hy day. 

Your eyes tvill read, and tender breast ivill hioiv. 



54 LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

And all spheres, Dear ! are servants nnto Love ; 

And all things in the World ohey a Poet ; 
And once — they say — the letter Yod did move, 

And cried aloud to Heav'n — Mishna doth show it! 

Therefore I lid these Letters — each of them — 

Be messengers of S2')le7idor to yon now ; 
Each minion casting at your feet some gem 

Worthy your white neck, or your arm, or hroiv. 

Lf one shoidd falter — if one fail herein — 
Denounce the traitor ! Tt shall surely bring 

Lll to that slave, as vjhen an Aral) Djin 

Vexed Sicleiman, or knocked Aladdin's ring ! 



■piP^E-OPALS, Fanny, from the magic cell I 
First of my alchemy, but not its best — 
Let me lay tliese upon your hands, and tell 
Why they seem not unworthy there to rest. 



For since God chained, in nether rock and bluff, 
Those radiant, sinful Angels, rebel found. 

Were ever — in the midst of dead dull stuff — 
Such burning, flashing beams of glory bound ? 

I think a broken rainbow would look so. 
If we could come at it, and steal a tittle 

When the Arch- Architects of air foreg^o 

Their w^ork, and leave it drifting loose a little. 

I pray you gaze a while on these lit stones 
By fancy fetched from Australasian steeps, 

Where moony pearl sets blazing scarlet tones, 
And pale gold melts to green, and amber leaps 



56 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

To bloomy violets ; and celestial blues 
Flicker to rose and ruby. You shall turn 

Nowise these jewels, but their shifting hues 
To some new brilliancy w^ll swiftly burn. 

So shall true lady bend no faithful love 

Toward some new need, but from its patient heart 

Kays of an unexpected light will move, 
And richer colors from its spirit start. 

Mark, also, when the " noble opal " feels 

Your palm's warm glow, its dancing beauties brighten: 
Breathe on this Hydrophane — the rose-tint steals 

From point to point ; and sea-green flashes lighten 

The sleeping flint ! Or, lay this Hyalite 
One instant 'mid the laces of your dress, 

Then note its sudden splendors ! So, 't is right 
Love's colors be drawn forth by tenderness. 

Yet, here is why I prize the shifting gem, 
And why I lay it on that dear right hand. 

Of all earth's common things the core of them 
Is humblest : Sweetheart ! pray you understand ! 



OPALS. 57 

Mean rubbish of the road-heaps ; silicates 

Which gather in chalk-hollows, where, sea-bred. 

Millions of billions, tubes and tunica tes 

Laid down their limy shells, Nature's small dead. 

Who would have thought there should be use, or other 

Service, for such lost Atoms of the main 
When, sinking through the seas, they give the Mother 

Their tiny life-garbs, to lay up again ? 

But She, — who hastes not, wastes not, scorns not — takes it, 

Each relic of her nameless children gone, 
Stores her sea-oozes with their spoil, and makes it 

Chalk down, or marble vein, or quarry-stone. 

Till ages thence — of ruined nummulites, 

Pharaohs their pyramids majestic build ; 
And Pheidias, from a tomb of trilobites, 

Calls Pallas forth, radiant with helm and shield ! 

So this fair wonder ; 't is the draff of rock 

Melted in fires of under-world, or broken 
Prom snow-swept crag, or shorn in earthquake-shock ; 

Of storm, and stress, and wreck the splintered token. 



58 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And yet, because Day's white rays evermore 
Find their way back into such flinty things, 

They glow like Seraphs' feathers. None is poor ! 

None mean ! Heaven's light can make them mates for 
kings ! 



Heeewith, an Amethystine Cup ! see, Dear ! 

How soft and pure the liquid purple swims ! 
'T is the Maid's stone : she hath no fault or fear 

Whose untouched lips drink from such chalice-brims 

Whose virginal cold fingers clasp this stem 
To quaff the sober wavelet of the streams ; 

And, if she wear an Amethyst, the gem 

Keeps her sleep calm, and innocent her dreams. 

It should be colored as though violet satin 

Changed to translucent crystal — with clear glow 

Of rose-red 'gainst the Sun : — the learned Latin 
" Eyelid of Venus " styles it, tinted so. 

Or you may wear Avanturine with spangles 
Of golden brown ; or Chrysoprase which gleams 

Pale apple-green ; or Eose-quartz that entangles 
Blushes of dawn, with white and lilac beams : 



6o LOTUS AND JEWEL 

Or Sard, the Carver's gem ; or Bloodstone sombre 
Spotted from veins of Christ — the legend says — 

Or Prase ; or Plasma, sea-gray stained with umber ; 
Or Chalcedony, quenching silver rays 

In milk. These all be sister-miracles 

Of Amethyst ; treasures of gnomes, brought up 

From distant caverns where the chill snake dwells 
'Mid poisonous flow'rs. Yet, most regard my cup 

Far-fetched and wonderful ! If you would know 
Whence came so fair a work of mortal hands, 

Learn it lay buried many fathoms low 
Under a temple-tank in Indian lands. 

(Elian — '' the honey-tongued " — its story writes 
In pleasant Greek ; one, named Heraclia, — 

A great Dame — in her Garden of Delights 
Saw a young stork fall on the public way : 

Some cruel arrow-barb had hurt its wing: 

Spread for long flight to Coromandel's shore ; 
• Piteous, in dust and blood, the affrighted thing 

Lay : — but she sped, and gathered it, and bore — 



AMETHYSTS. 6l 

Soft-folded on her breast — into her bower ; 

And tliere, with soothing balms and unguents strange, 
Healed his harsh wound, and gave him back the power 

Of those broad painted pinions, to outrange 

The flying crudded rack, poised in high air. 

Ah, the stork's happy cry when first he rose 
Over the city-roofs, and spied full clear 

His road athwart the blue — as a fowl goes 

On shoulder of West wind — to warm Malay ! 

A little grieved she that her bird sprang forth 
So gladsome. Afterwards — on that same way — 

When Spring brings back the storks from South to 
North ; 

While she did pace towards the Altar-stair, 
Out from the clouds that glad cry rang again : 

And lo ! th' astonished people were aware 

Of a great fowl, which clanged, and left his train 

Of friends ranged wedge-wise. Lighting at her feet 
There he let fall this beauteous sculptured cup, 

And laid his neck against her bosom sweet 
For love of her : then, swiftly soaring up, 



62 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Was never seen again ! Heraclia 

Quaffed from no other vessel, all her life ; 

And poisons could not harm her ; nor — books say — 
Pains or plagues touch her ; widow, maid, or wife ! 

But when she died, and this rare goblet lay 
Beside her bier, there came a whirr of wing 

Under the marble porch ; and bore away 
The precious gift. So fell it to the King 

Of Coroman4el : and when he was slain 
In Chittur, some one hid it in the tank. 

I bade my minion fish it up again, 

And bear to thee. Drink as Heraclia drank ! 



N. 



Nephrite, herewith ! the sea-green China Jade ; 

A sacred stone ! If you would magic try 
Carve i. 8. i. i on a square well-made, 

(Its demon number) in the charactery 

Of hieroglyphs — for Egypt knew this well 
And named it Nilion from her ancient river ; 

In Babylon 't was dedicate to Bel ; 

Kings sealed decrees therewith ; aye ! and, or ever 

A Spaniard's eye from Darien surveyed — 
Amazed — the blue Pacific's endlessness. 

Those feather-cinctured Aztecs worshipped Jade 
And graved their Gods upon it ! WeU ! — impress 

The figures ; set it in pure gold, and breathe 
Thrice at the dawning on it, thrice at night, 

Eepeating " Thoth " five hundred times ; then wreathe 
A red thread round it — afterwards no wight 



64 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Be he crowned Prince, or Lord, or Common man, 
Saitli nay to any wish that shall arise ! 

But you — you smile 1 knowing how Woman can 
Weave stronger spells with jewels of her eyes. 

Leave, then, the amulet. Still, — if you take 
A bead of gray Jade, cut with Shiva's mark, 

'Tis sure — by Hindoo mantras — not one snake 
Will dare to cross your pathway in the dark .' 

You " will not walk," say you, " where such be found," 

Eve of a safer Paradise ? — Then, see 
How daintily the pale green Nephrite-ground 

Backs the hot rubies in this jew^elry 

Of Muslim art ! An Amir's dagger-hilt. 
Patiently polished for his angry hand ! 

Note how the damasked waving blade is built 
With blood-channels, and all its beauty planned 

To kill, kill, kill ! exquisite devilry 

Of arabesques of death, wrought without joint 

'Mid two pure rows of seed-pearls, running free 
Hither and thither in a slot; keen point 



JADE. 6$ 

Like a snake's tootli ! Heed the gold script inlaid 
All up and down the steel like trickling blood ! 

Ya Jannat — " Ah, the Garden ! " — that is said 
To signify one little thrust makes good 

The road to Paradise ; and see, writ deep 

Bi maruf iCllali "by God's love and fear, 

To whoniso 't is appointed I bring sleep 

Deeper than poppies ! " Yet another here — 

A lovely masterpiece of mortal spite 

Hafted in delicate Avanturine ; 
Sumptuously set with ruby stars of light 

As if a foeman's gore congealed had been 

In drops about the gilded guard : its badge 

Al liamdu lua al manat Lillalii 
" To God be praise and glory I " meaning rage 

To consecrate ! And all this gear to see 

Of Jade and gems, embellishing mere Hate ! 

If craftsmen to cold murder lend such grace 
What should they do for Love ? Ah, Sweetheart, w^ait ! 

My slaves shall seek gifts in a gentler place. 



N. 



JSTacre, and Pearls of Ormuz, now I fetch 

From the bright stores of Love's enchanted Palace ; 

Know you, perchance, how that poor formless wretch 
The Oyster — gems his shallow moonlit chalice ? 

Where the shell irks him, or the sea-sand frets, 
There, from some subtle organ, he doth shed 

This lovely lustre on his grief, and gets 
Peace, and the world his labor, being dead. 

Ah, patient foolish fish of the Orient seas ! 

What else do we, the Poets, serfs of men, 
But pour our souls out in soft verse, to ease 

Our aches, and die ; and people make us then 

Wealth, whence they draw musical ornament 
For lovers' use, and sweet wise things to say ; 

And wonder if the Lady did relent. 

Or keep the pearls, and throw the life away. 



PEARLS. 67 

For here be pearls, too ; pearls of lucent ray 

For some one strung to mark her where she goes 

A Pearl of women ; and when others say 

" Oh, you glad Lady ! who did give you those : — 

" Pearls of white thought, pearls of a lasting love ? " 
Then will you finger them on your fair throat, 

And answer : " These came deeper than from grove 
Of sea-trees, green beneath the diver's boat ! 

" Full many a fathom down I hanselled them 
In heart of him who did not grudge, indeed ; 

He would have melted Cleopatra's gem 
In wine of verse, if I had said * I need 

" ' New splendors for my necklet.' On one day 
I did not know he lived ; and that day's morrow 

I knew he loved me well ; and thence — alway — 
I am his peace and pain, his crown and sorrow ! " 

" Ah," they will cry, "for such strong faith, Pardie! 
" ^,.We, now, had shown great favor ; pearls are much ! " 
But- thou, wear, and speak nought ! — I give them thee 
Free of all price, and a king's hoard of such. 



68 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

There was a King promised his beauteous Queen 
A virgin necklace of pure matchless pearls 

"Which ne'er before had worn or threaded been, 
Milk-white from where the Arab fisher furls 

His sails of mat ; and stoops and plunges in, 
And sees the light fade farther from his eyes. 

And hears the dreadful, weltering, waters' din ; 
Yet dares the agony, and grasps the prize ; — 

Sinking a slave, with hardly means to feed ; 

Eeturning, gift-giver to Queens and Kings, — 
The brine choking his lips, the bladdered weed 

Tangling his feet, but those pale precious things 

Safe in his loin cloth ! And, perchance, one day 
He watched the high Sultana pass in state ; 

The necklace warm between her breasts, her way 
Lined by a worshipping crowd, her sceptred mate 

Proud of that pearled Consort. And his heart 
Would laugh within him saying, " Lord of lands ! 

In what thou lovest I, too, claim a part ! 
She is so fair because these toilsome hands 



PEARLS. 69 

" Tore from the waves their wealth. Yea, Pearl of pearls ! 

Liilu-'l-maknun! than Ilouris lovelier, 
That hast the black eyes of the Prophet's Girls 

Promised in Paradise, and mouth of myrrh ; 

" In next life after this whose wilt thou be, 

His that c^ave ojold for thee, or mine, who went 

Across the shark's jaws to the nether sea, 

Nigh dead for breath, that thou might'st pace 
content ? " 

So, Queen of mine ! I am that Eastern King ! 

These pearls were never strung which I send thee ; 
I ransacked unl^nown gulfs for them, I bring 

New moonlight wonders from an unsailed sea. 

Nay, and my Pearl ! I am that Arab Diver ! 

I stooped and plunged for you into the wave, 
Eeturning rich — yet richer, when forever. 

The treasure of the upper air I have ; 

If not ! — Ah, life's light quenched, and life's faith broken ! 

How fares it with pearl-fisher dead and foiled ? 
Lost ! — tossing; on the billows for a token 

Of his large hope, he drifts where he had toiled ; 



70 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And sea-birds — which are like sharp thoughts — consume 
him ; 

And hideous fish — fierce as love-longings — tear 
The heart that beat so bold ; and storm-clouds gloom him 

Out from the sight of Heaven. Pity him, Dear ! 



Ydcut Asfur : so the swart Sonar names 
These golden-lighted topazes from Ind : 

If you should heed his tale, their yellow flames 
Gleam in the dark so that a man may find 

A path thereby ; or read in Holy Writ ; 

Or see her lips whose neck lies on his arm ; 
Also the topaz (levigating it) 

Cures sleeplessness, scant breath, and fever's harm ; 

Soothes anger ; strengthens wit ; counterchecks spells ; 

Aids divination, and — on cups inlaid - 
If poison lurk within, faithfully tells, 

Becoming pale ! Albertus Magnus said 

It was Draconium — a Dragon's bone — 
(Black and pyramidal) which rendered sight 

To Theodosius. Nay, indeed, the stone 
Was Topaz ! Shall I give you this aright ? 



72 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

' T was in those times when birds and beasts could talk. 
Who now are wiser than to know too much ; 

When newer eyes saw Shades and Angels walk ; 
And younger hands feared not God's hand to touch ; 

The " Gesta Eomanorum " tells it : — he, 
The blind great Csesar, hung a brazen gong 

"Before his Palace-gate, whither flocked free 
All citizens, and whoso suffered wrong 

Might beat the brass and speak — lofty or low — 
Into that Emperor's ear, patient reclining ; 

The purple wrapped around his sightless brow, 
But in his soul the Light of Justice shining. 

Thus, one day came a snake which had her young 
Under the gateway-tower : she, sharply hissing, 

Struck with her coils the echoinc^ gong that hunsj 
Against the porch. Thereon, Caesar — dismissing 

The dark-eyed girls who fanned liim — cried in Greek 
" Have entrance, friend ! " And, gliding in, the Snake 

Did homage with her crest in dust ; then, meek 
Addressed the Master of the East : " I make 



TOPAZES, 73 

" My nest beneath thy wall, where, yesternight, 
Safe slept my brood — to me more fair and brave 

Than those rich ropes of sards and jacinths bright 
Binding thy head-cloth : but, while I, thy slave, 

" Wandered for food, there stole a porcupine 
Into my hole, and ate my snakelets three ; 

And hath my wonted house, as 't were not mine ! 
And will not yield 1 Now, therefore, unto me 

" Grant justice, Csesar ! " Then, the sightless King 
Gave straight command they kill that beast, and lead 

The Serpent safely homeward. And this thing 
Was wrought ; and men lightly forgot the deed. 

But, on the morrow, at the hour of noon — 
When Theodosius on his day-bed slept — 

Jewelled with many a jet and amber moon, 
And ringed and gilt, a monstrous serpent crept 

Over the patterned pavements, clomb the bed ; 

And, gliding to the cheek of Csesar, laid 
From its wide jaws, — thick-set with fangs and red, — 

A Topaz upon either lid ! Affrayed 



74 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

The Guards beheld, and would have slain the Worm 
Save that it uttered : " Let me pass with life ! 

Eouse ye your Lord ! then will all men affirm 
I pay full court-fees for my righted wife." 

And lo ! when Theodosius waked, his eyes 

Were purged of cloud ! the blessed beam of Day 

Shone once more, his to joy in ; and surprise 
Fell on the city. But Love wins alway! 

Two marvels hath the Topaz ! When 't is laid — 
The light wine-colored jewel — in the sun, 

Day by day you shall mark its glories fade ; 
Golden and crimson lustres, one by one, 

Perishing into paleness ! Lesson-laden 
The gem's deed is, for see you not a token ? 

Was never tender secret of fair maiden 
But lost its deep delight in being spoken. 

Again, take amber-yellow Topazes ! 

Heat them — safe-packed in crucible — and lay 
All glowing on white stone ; and then, as is 

The dying dolphin's change, or shift of Day 



TOPAZES. 75 

Melting to Night, so show the strange adornings 
Of this gem cooling : first, like ice it gleams 

Hueless, then steals a tender tint of morning's 
Soft earliest saffron ; afterwards it beams 

Such faint pale pink as white hedge-roses blush with ; 

And last — all suddenly — a rosy glow 
Shoots through the stone, as rich as rubies flush with ; 

Eemaining fixed ! Who made the Sun doth know 

Why this should be ! Yet, clasp these jewels, too. 
Near to your heart ! My next slave flies to bear 

Stuff for that structure which I promised you, 
A Fairy Palace, richer than Kings rear. 



TV /r OONSTONE, and Malachite and Almondine ! 

These for the Pleasure-Place I build with song, 
Since you did say : " Now, lodge me like a Queen ! 
Peign me a Bower of Fancy ! Love is strong ! " 

Here, then, I dream a dream to house you in, 

A Palace for my Princess, saying that : 
The spot shall be where the great hills begin, 

Polling in dark waves from the Deccan flat. 

This way on Maharashtra's plains they look ; 

That way to mountains and the Arab sea ; 
A forest, full of many a tangled nook, 

Clothes the gray crags with green embroidery. 

Pair is the scene, and sweet the seasons all ; 

The folk MaliTattas ; pastoral, simple, brave. 
Thither my fairy architects I call. 

And there a lovely Indian home I 'd have ! 



MOONSTONE. 77 

Like to abodes of the East, the stateliest planned, 

With white wide walls, high domes, gates gold and red ; 

Pillared chabootras, dark with shade, shall stand 
Eound the first court, where steps of marble spread 

Before a pierced-work porch, whereby you pass 
To inner coolness, through a columned cloister, 

Whose roof — rose-crystal — polished thin as glass. 
Lights the veined pavements, all of alabaster. 

Scented strange woods shall frame the chamber-doors, 
Fountains of fragrant waters will be there ; 

Along the ways, and winding stairs, and floors 
Delicious things of Art shall make it fair ! 

Blossoms of unnamed hues and odors fine 

Shall deck the courts for you — the Flower of All ! 

Birds in the orange-walks and lanes of vine 

Shall know your name, and come when you do call ! 

Flowers, too, shall glow of never-fading bloom, 
On screens of Jasper wrought, fencing the Bower, 

Such as one sees in that white Temple-Tomb, 
Beared by great Shah Jehan on Jumna's shore, 



y8 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

To keep for ever famous Mumtaz' name — 
The Lady of his Throne — a hundred gems. 

Cut to their burning hearts one fJower to frame ; 
Then inlaid on the slabs, in anadems, 

And wreaths, and arabesques of rare conceit, 
A changeless garden, where the happy eye 

Lights nowhere but some posy, costly-sweet. 
Fills it with joy of daintiest jewelry. 

I will have columns such as Solomon 

Commanded of his Djins — naming The !N"ame 

Cut in the blue of that dread signet stone. 
His magic Sapphire ; columns such as came 

Across the AramcBan sands, across 

The Erythroean billows ; syenite, 
Black porphyry purple-veined, the satin gloss 

Of onyx ; coral, crystals, chrysolite. 

With abaci of silver. I will have 

A milk-white warm pavilion in the midst, 

Such as Siddartha, Prince of India, gave 
To bright Yasodhara. Whisper thou didst 



MOONSTONE. 79 

That " Love is rich ; " and what, then, shall prevent 
Our Palace with such Amethyst lamps to light 

As gleamed o'er Cleopatra's sleep, and sent 

Eays of soft splendor through th' Egyptian night ; 

Dimming Mizar and Algol ? \Yliat forbids 
To ordain such hangings as Aladdin chose 

Of blue and amber silks ; and coverlids 

Stiff with sewn gold and seed pearls ? Ay, or those 

Carpets of Iran woven thick with tints 

Of peach and tulip ; and sweet secret times 

Of Leila and Majnun ; and pictured hints 
Of lovers' bliss ; and tender subtle rhymes 

From Persian verse — seggadehs gay, where fall 
The henna-stained small feet of Shiraz girls 

Softly as snow on roses. Therewithal 

A pleasaunce shall extend, where a stream purls 

Cold from the crags, the sunny lawns along, 

Sparkling from stone to stone ; bordered by ranks 

Of blue and crimson lotus, and a throne^ 

Of plumed palms shading all the dappled banks 



80 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

With shifting fans ; and underneath the palms, 
Moon-flowers, musk-roses, and the silvery spear 

Of aloes, and the champak's star of balms. 
With milky mogras, breathing far and near 

Breath as from Paradise ; Oh, and the walks 
(New-watered every dawn) cut low and high 

With runnels, where the mountain-water talks 
Music to doves and mynas, nesting nigh ; 

Ofttimes o'erleaped by golden-coated hordes 

Of antelope, the bucks leading the way ; 
The limpid-eyed light does following their lords, 

Their shyness gone ; friendly, and safe, and gay : 

For in our Palace peace and love shall reign. 
And all fair creatures of the air and earth 

Be friends of man, who, elsewhere, pays his pain 

With pain and harm to these ; though Death and Birth 

Are one for all, and Life the self-same sadness. 
Where Love and Pity rule not ! There shall be 

For gentle service faces full of gladness ; 
Willing swift feet, and happy vassalry ; 



MOONSTONE. 8 1 

For good it is to obey where Love is master, 
And freest he who serves the noblest Queen ; 

Therefore, thou minister! bring — fast and faster — 
Moonstone, and Malachite, and Almondine 1 



A. 



Aquamarine — from Fancy's treasure-hall ! 

Yet sad to-day for me this sea-green stone ; 
For on the Channel-sands your light feet fall, 

And I, among these millions, walk alone. 

But, wave-stained jewel ! shine with brighter thought ! 

It was across the Deep — years back — she came ; 
The billows, which are of thy color, brought 

That gentle face to us. For this I name 

The Beryl, water-tinted, as one stone 
To spell you. On its lucent face is writ 

fiafcpov aireaTi totto^ — "all alone, 

Far hence, among the wine -dark waves, they sit." 

The " happy Isles," he means, who carved that line ; 

For ancient sailors told a mystic story 
How some had seen, had touched — in joy divine — 

Maharon nesous, at the " Groups of Glory," 



AQUAMARINE. 83 

The sweet " Sea-Paradise " — so hints this Greek ! 

Ah, if wave-colored gem could guide us there ; 
And we, far voyaging, might sight some peak 

Unknown, unnamed — cleaving the tranquil air 

With pinnacles which feel no storm, and steeps 
Lawny and lovely, where Death does not come, 

Nor change, nor hate, nor care ; but alway sleeps 
The purple main around the perfect home ! 

Where we should find delightful friends and lovers, 

And hear no word of woe on any lip ; 
Opening glad eyes, as when the Dawn discovers 

A sky of blue and gold, and ill dreams slip 

Back to that gloom which bred them : where the wonder 
Of " whence " and " why " and " whither " would be 
known ; 

And we should lie, like Gods, above the thunder, 
The Past perceived, the Future sure and shewn ; 

Such were great magic ! But the Isles in mind 
Rise farther than the farthest ocean, Dear ! 

Thither to sail — with e'er so fair a wind — 
Asks more than toil of many a wandering year ! 



84 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

We shall not reach them, save with Earth for vessel, 
Sky for our sea, and for long voyage Life ; 

But if Love steers, at last our sails may nestle, 

Furled in those far-off Isles — past storm and strife. 



E. 



EuBiES, witli Pearls! That 's ISTature's jewelry \ 
Look in your mirror when you speak my name, 

And while you say it you may plainly see 

Those charming reasons why I write the same ; 

Pearl-row« which gleam through rose-leaf lips of grace — 

Ah, no ! — I will not weave such worn-out posies ; 
I had a higher fancy for this place 

Than rhymes which jingle " rubies, pearls, and roses." 

For these are Mdnikas — stones true and good, 

Which my spell brings from Burmah's steaming grove. 

Such have the color of the drop of blood 
Shed on the white neck of a wounded dove. 

Of such was carved the magic vial filled 

With water from the " Fount of Youth "that wells 

Behind the '' Sea of Darkness ;" water spilled 
By Sultan Suleiman. Ben Ali tells 



86 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

This legend, done in Persian, from the Book 
"Lights of Canopus " — how the Hebrew Khan 

Sat on the cloud-roofed mountain-tops which look 
This way on Ind, that way to Khorasan. 

Angels and Djins and Peris round the king 

Paid homage, mixed with man and beast and bird, 

For on his finger was the Sappliire-ring 

Graved with the name of God, which whoso heard, 

Hearing, obeyed. Wherefore the Eagles flew 

Against the sun, to shade him ; she-bears brought 

Wild honey ; snakes their jewels ; flowers upgrew 
To make a footstool for his feet. Outraught 



&" 



Over the Earth his sceptre none withstood 
In lands, or seas, or nether-worlds, or sky 

Where — like to glassy fish in glassy flood, 
Blue in blue hyaline — the Spirits lie 

Un viewed, but living : and, this thing was seen ; 

There drifted from the Pass a darksome cloud 
Which, gliding nigh — the mountain-crests between, 

Took vast and filmy form, at first a shroud 



RUBIES. '^J 

That seemed to wrap some phantom-head ; but, soon 
A shape of grace whose light and color gleamed 

From gold of setting sun, pearl of new moon, 

With wings of waving sapphire, hair which streamed 

Curled jacinth on the breeze ; garments of amber 
Draped vaguely from an azure girdle-band ; 

Great breasts of rounded rose, veils tliat enchamber 
A half-spied awful countenance ; a hand 

Slow-issuing from the shade, holding a cup 

Cut from the sunset's ruby, — light compressed 

To solid splendor — " Drink this liquor up ! " 

A voice cried : " Drink, dread King ! The high behest 

'' Of Him Whose Name is on thy Signet- Stone 
Wills I bring water from the Well of Life ; 

Of all men, Suleiman ! to thee alone 

God proffers this ! a draught with power so rife 

" That, quaffing it, thy flesh and blood shall take 
Even as an Angel's, comely, changeless youth ; 

Days without end, delights of sense to make 
Immortal years seem few ; insight of Truth 



88 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Such as thy Soul hath craved for. Drink or spill ! 

Have here this Vessel with its dancing draught ; 
My errand is performed ! Judge how ye will, 

Suleiman and the Counsellors ! " A waft 

Of sighing wind scattered the waning shape ; 
In the King's grasp the Euby Vial shone ; 
Far down the Pass — from splintered cape to cape — 
' Faded the breaking cloud-flecks, one by one. 

But, when the strange Voice ceased, Suleiman mused: - 
" Yea ! good it were to drink this gift of God ; 

Good to repair my days and nights misused. 
Treading with wiser steps life's ways retrod : 

" Good to win back the fiery speed of youth 
In veins which slacken ; good to ever guard 

My kingdom ; to strip bare beautiful Truth 

With eyes undimmed, heart's hot desire unmarred, 

" Wholly possessing her, naked and pure ; 

jMyself ever renewed, joyous, and strong ; 
Good, too, it were to have my years endure, 

That God's fair Temple, — which I fashion long — 



RUBIES. 89 

" May grow to perfect glory ; and my wars 
Close in sure peace, — I seeing, age by age, 

My people prosper under wider stars, 

In larger lands ; till, on the great last page 

" Of this World's Book Suleiman's name shall shine ! 

Yea ! I will drink ! Yet, ye who gather near, 
Djins ! Angels ! Beasts and Fowls, Servants of mine ! 

How counsel ye your King ? Fain would I hear." 

With loud acclaim, '' Drink, happy King ! " said they ; 

And one with dark plumes folded, evil-eyed, 
Sakhrah the Dev — who, later, stole away 

Suleiman's signet-ring — low bending, cried : 

" Drink, Lord of Lords ! the gold of youth is bright, 
And dull the silver of slow-creeping eld ; 

And dear are wealth and power ; and soft the night 
By dawn of lovely ladies' eyes dispelled ! " 

And Shir the Djin spake : — knowing magic best — 
"Drink, Friend of God! the Earth's weal rests on thee 

As sleeps an infant on a nursing breast ; 

It were not well thy Throne should vacant be ! " 



90 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And Amber in the Peri, gliding close 

With flutter of white plumes, said, " Drink, my King ! 
The joys of men and Devs in thee repose 

As gems are held in cirque of golden ring ! " 

Assad the Lion answered for the beasts, 

Laying his shagged mane at the Monarch's feet, 

" Drink, Master of all forests ! Thy brave feasts 
Have known no wine like this, subtle and sweet ! " 

And Sag, the Seal, moist from the Indian main, 

Drooped his black fins, and bellowed: 'Sovereign, 
drink ! 

The Water-creatures and the Fish are fain 

That thou shouldst live for ever ! " From the brink 

Of Baikal flew the Locust, chirping : " Khan ! 

Drink ! for all things which burrow, creep, and buzz, 
Trust thee to help them, helping beast and man : 

And Who doth raise the dead from one bone, Luz, 

" Gives thee at one draught Angelhood ! " Spake last 
Hud-hud, the Lapwing, piping : " I have seen 

The glory of Queen Balkis now o'erpassed 

Drink, Lord ! for never such a gift hath been ! " 



RUBIES. 91 

But glancing sternly round, quoth Suleiman : 

" Are all things here ? Hath none some other rede ? 

Lo ! ere I drink, and pass to God from Man, 
Is every counsel uttered ? " " Hast thou need, 

" Great King ! " the hill-fox barked, " to hear what word 
Kumri will speak ? She tarrieth on her nest ! 

I spied her in the thorns ! " '' Send forth a bird 
To summon her ! " quoth he. At such behest 

Came Kumri, flying from her tree ; the Dove 
Who hath the neck of purple, and the wings 

Of silver, and the breast filled full of love : 

Heaven's softest creature. Spake she: "King of 
Kings, 

" Pardon thy handmaid that she stayed to brood 

Twin eggs which must not chill 1 Thy dread command 

Passed unto me, and I have left my wood ! 

What dost thou with the red cup in thy hand ? " 

" I hold from Heaven a draught of life immortal, 

The Ma-ul-Haiyat ! " Suleiman replied : 
" If I shall quaff. Death's dark and hateful portal 

Never can gape for me ! " Then, Kumri sighed : 



92 LOTUS AND JEWEL, 

" All, mighty Lord ! how should a little bird, 
Which only knows to nest and brood and coo, 

Counsel great Suleiman ? Yet be this heard ; 
Hath He, Who gave the water, given, too, 

"The boon that whosoever holds thy heart, — 
Queen, lover, friend, concubine, daughter, son — 

May in the magic potion take their part ? 
For then this guerdon were a precious one ! " 

"Nay !" the King said, "to me alone the cup ! 

Not larger, see ! than those eggs thou didst leave ! 
I am commanded — if I will — to sup 

Its last bright drop!" Then, moaned the Dove: 
"I grieve 

" They counsel thee to drink ; for all will go, 
Thy Queens, thy children, ministers, and slaves ; 

Thy best belov'd will be as last year's snow 

On these hot mountains ! Thou wilt rule mid graves, 

" Dead — though thou livest — with thy dead ; and see 
Lip after lip, pressed once to thy lip, press 

The bitter brim of Fate's black cup ; and be 
Sad in thy splendor, with such loneliness 



RUBIES. 93 

" As deserts know not, nor the lifeless main : 
Thy Earth around thee will grow old and gray; 

Thy Kingdoms pass ; thy fields fall wild again, 
But thou — too favored — shalt be young alway 

" With memory only old ; yet, that will taste 

Death in the dust which blows from every tomb ; 

Death in the flowers which wave in every waste, 
Death in the mid-day light, death in the gloom ! 

" Lord of ^.11 Kings ! forgive ! Love bids me speak! 

If her mate cometh not the wild dove dies ! 
I would not drink hereof, who am so weak. 

Lest I might lose by gaining : Love is wise ! " 

Thereon departed Kumri — flying hard 

To find her nest ere the twin eggs should chill : 

And Suleiman the King, upon the sward 

With eager hand the magic draught did spill. 



Idocrase ! Garnet from the Hills of Flame ! 

A stone thus known hides in dark Hentha's glade 
Which, when the Indians find, with joy they name. 

And — proving — toil no more ; their gain is made 

The " Koble Garnet " ! There the color lives 
So fine and rich no wheel can cut it dim : 

Flake it, or break it, every splinter gives 

One glorious crimson glow from core to rim ; 

The color of the blood of a man's heart 

When — between red and purple — it doth sweep 
Through the chief vein of all ; nay, or a part 

Of the heart's self, carved where the life lies deep. 

So if you say " such praise is common speech ! " 
And " I have heard these tender things before ! " 

Ah, Sweetheart ! let my Indian Garnets teach 
A better word to you, a wiser lore ; 



GARNETS. 95 

For these are cut, Dear ! from a heart of faith ; 

The color of Love's blood within them glows. 
Know you a mystical Purana saith 

There lurks in Balkh, under the lower snows, 

A gem so hued, like purple wine congealed, 
Styled Cliintasiddlii (that 's " Desire fulfilled ") 

And, whoso lighteth on it, goes afield 

Where two streams meet ; and — water being spilled 

From forth his palm to all six quarters — then 

He whispers •'' OM " — the stone laid on his tongue, 

And therewith, from the forest or the glen, 
A red she-wolf advances, great with young, 

Who speaks a word ; and, if the man hath learned 
The counter-word, that wolf will whine and moan ; 

And ' — sudden — to a red-haired woman turned 
Cry out : " I am the Servant of the Stone ! 

" Command me as thou wilt ! " Then, if he wills 
A feast be spread for him on plates of gold ; 

A palace builded in the hidden hills. 

With courts and gardens wondrous to behold ; 



96 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Or, if he will a magic horse with wings 

To bear him through the Blue ; or mail of proof 

No steel can pierce ; or if his fancyings 

Lean towards lovely wives, or wealth, or woof 

Of Kashmir silks with warp of silver thread, 

Or pearls, or poisons — she with blood-bright locks 

Fetcheth them all ! You shake a dubious head ? 
You think the heathenish Purana mocks ? 

Oh, but the Talmud hath a passage, Dear ! — 

The grave, great Talmud — telling how one flouted 

Eabbi ben Zachai, at the hour of prayer, 

Who said, while that rash unbeliever doubted, 

Jahveh would build gates for Jerusalem 
Of pearls and garnets, measuring every way 

Full thirty cubits — every stone of them — 
And cut them to ten cubits ; and so lay 

Thresholds and lintels. Yet, that scorner laughed ! 

But, next moon, sailing on the Joppa sea, 
A white wave cast him over, and he quaffed 

Salt drink of Death, down-sinking horribly ; 



GARNETS. 97 

And touched the oozy bed ; and saw — affrayed, — 
Sea-angels there, who rolled great pearls and stones 

Full thirty cubits broad and long ; and made 
Blocks of their mighty beauty. So his bones 

Quaked at the sight, for all their angry eyes 

Burned on him ; and he spake: "Oh, Angels ! say 

Why cleave ye these ? " They answered, in stern wise, 
" We cleave these pearls and carbuncles to lay 

"The portals of the Holy City ! " Judge 
If he came back in better mind — what time 

They washed his mouth clean of the weeds and sludge, 
And heard his trembling tale ! Ah, Darling ! rhyme 

Eelates not half the marvels which lie hid 

Behind our mocking light ! My next slave goes 

To stranger spots than he ; and, since I bid, 

Brings thee a Gem from Aaron's breast-plate rows. 



The third row of the holy Breast-Plate stood 
"Agate, and Ligure, and an Amethyst." 

Great Jewels, graven with the tribes of God, 
Hallow my page ! and thou, be thy brow kissed 

By Seraphim, as I hang this above it ; 

Thy hands held up by Cherubim to pray ; 
Thy soul made sure that splendid spirits love it ; 

Thy feet set fast upon the blissful way ! 

Tor, though. I bring thee hither but in fiction 
" Ephod of blue and gold," with mystic gem, 

Let my verse pass, but be its benediction 
Lasting, and crown thee like a diadem ! 

Since prayer fulfils itself which rises rightly 
From lips by gentle love made true and sweet ; 

So, let these belted Agates glitter brightly ; 
As when Haroun cast beneath his feet 



AGATES. 99 

Coats of the camp, and donned white robe and mitre ; 

And round his waist the " curious girdle " tied ; 
And drew the thongs and gilded ouches tighter, 

Hanging his breast-plate high — Oh, beautified 

By wondrous work of " gold and blue and crimson, 
On fine-twined cloth " — the gold beat out four-square 

A span each way ; and gold chains linked the rims on. 
With fourfold ranks of jewelry set fair, — 

First Sardius, Topaz, and the Jaspis green ; 

Next Smaragd, Sapphire, and an Adamant ; 
Third Ligure, Agate, Amethyst were seen 

Laid on chased beddings ; and the fourth line burnt 

With Beryl, Onyx, Chrysolite : each stone 

Carved witli a Tribal name ! And he would go 

Behind the Veil ; where — shut from Earth, alone — 
He saw and heard what Israel might not know ; 

For there the Ark was, and the Cherubim 

Beat from pure gold, with golden pinions spread 

Shading the Mercy-Seat. There God with him 

Talked ; and none other heard the dread words said. 



100 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

But, if the days were evil — if the camp 

Had sinned — the Agate changed its white to black ; 
Waned the green Smaragd like a dying lamp ; 

The Sapphire half its heavenly blue did lack ! 

Ah ! if our gems of human love we bore 

Behind that Veil, would many — any — keep 

Their beauty of the laughing Day ? Would more 
Be dimmed, than brightened ? See what legions weep 

Of love-lorn maids for wooers proved untrue I 
What cohorts of true wooers curse false maids ! 

Let us not enter in 1 Enough, if you 

Are fair, and I your poet fond, who braids 

These jewelled fancies for your hair ! At last, 
I think where Love has lived, it cannot die ; 

Its flame may wane, its lustrous light seem past, 
But what once shone shines on eternally ! 

Yes ! lift the Veil ! In that dread darkness pray I 
Heaven make your years all happy — till we know — 

Th' Angelic peace compass and fill you — say I — 
And God's love come when Earthly love must go ! 



A MBEE ! You shall have Amber beads to bind 
Your smooth brown hak — threaded with Lazulite ! 
I send my minion on swift wings to find 

These hidden spoils of Earth for your delight : 

And when — round the Madonna's painted head — 
You limn aerial backgrounds ! do you know 

That the soft azures which your pencils spread 
Come from this Lazulite — gold-spangled so ? 

" Ultramarina/' — those same sea-blue stones — 
Dug from dark caverns fringing Baikal's lake — 

The lucent airs, and large ethereal tones, 
And passages of pamter's skies do make. 

I think if you should delve such Lazalite 

As hides wdthin my heart — all gold and blue — 
The gold of it would make your days seem bright, 
-, The blue of it might arch fair skies for you : 



102 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Well ! take or leave ! You are too rich to need it ; 

And love is sorrow — so say all the wise — 
Though lovers never yet have deigned to heed it, 

Since first your sweet sex cost us Paradise ! 

Is Love so sad ? This Amber, clear and golden, — 
Wept from great trees which, when the woods began, 

Waved boughs, it may be^ over lovers olden. 
Shaded their slumbers, built primeval man 

His nuptial bowers : for, see ! the bead encloses 
Winged things which fluttered in life's goodlihead ; 

Here is embalmed memory of meadow-roses. 
An epitaph on unseen summers dead. 

So, too, for me, the Indian name of Amber 
Enshrines the pathos of a Buddhist page : — 

Ah, now ! no story for a lady's chamber ! 
Only the fable of some old-world Sage ! 

Yet, you shall hear: she was Suvarna, "Shining," — 
The soft name pictures all the grace we praise 

In Beauty's inner beam, subtly combining 
Body and Soul, a perfumed lamp whose rays 



AMBER AND LAZULITE. IO3 

Gleam dim through alabaster. Legends note us 
Her " eighteen perfect points," the fragrant hair ; 

The eyes clear-cut as petals of the lotus ; 
The shapely nose, the little faultless pair 

Of ears carved shell-v/ise, and the close-set bosoms 
Eounded " like tortoise-shell ; " the brown soft arms ; 

Small hands, fine feet, mouth " red as bimba-blossoms," 
Gait of a pacing roe, form showing charms 

Like Sachi's, Queen of Heav'n. Lords did adore her, 
Eanas and Khans from many wondrous lands : — 

Kings came on elephants to kneel before her. 
Their kingdoms' jewels in their humbled hands. 

When she would dance it seemed like Music moving, 
Visible, living ! When she sang, the Eose 

Forgot its nightingale ! the Koil loving 
Stayed in his midway note to listen close ! 

When one had seen Suvarna — says my story — 
Fresh from the bath, in robes of gold and red. 

Her beauty glittering forth with youth's full glory, 
Glad, in her palace, on an ivory bed ; — 



104 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

All women seemed her shadows ! Still — 't is written — 

Lovers were many, but beloved none : 
Not once with Kama's arrow sank she smitten ; 

This sun-light Lady wearied of the sun ! 

Then she heard Buddha preach ; and fierce upon her 

Fell passion for that holiness he taught : 
She would " Bhikshuni " live ; no heart should own her ! 

Freed should her soul be, and her footsteps brought 

Into the " Noble Path " ! So went she lonely 
Climbing the hill-side to Lord Buddha's Cave ; 

Hungering for Eest and Righteousness, — those only — 
Thirsting for sweet melodious words which save. 

But, on the midmost steep, whose rugged ways 
Wounded the rose-red palms of her light feet, 

A streamlet brimmed a pool : Suvarna stays 
To sit and drink the water cool and sweet. 

Thus, bending in the shadow of the mountain 
To dip her hand and sip the crystal wave. 

Like a steel mirror the translucent fountain 
Back to her gaze her own bright image gave. 



AMBER AND LAZULI TE. IO5 

There was the braided splendor of her tresses ! 

There the deep wonder of her large dark eyes ! 
There the brown neck and breast, made for caresses, 

The flower-soft mouth, the shadowed charm which lies 

In curve of nape, and sweep of silken shoulder ; 

The supple tapering waist, the swelling round 
Of hip and shapely limb : — her own beholder 

Suvarna marvelled at the form she found. 

''Was I so fair?" she sighed: "Well might they love 
me, 

Eajas and Sirdars ! And what days we had. 
Good, glorious days ! before the ache did move me 
To hear this Eishi. Am I sane or mad 

" To mount his hill ? The Gods have given me beauty 
As to the Ketuk-flower they gave perfume ; 

And gold bands to their bees ! Is it not duty 
The bee should suck the honey of the bloom ? " 

Therewith her tears welled, falling — pearl by pearl — 
Into the pool, which broke its glass with ripples ; 

Vanished the image ! Then the Indian Girl 
Tied the silk choli-strings beneath her nipples ; 



I06 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And drew lier sari round ; and, rising, turned, 
Taking the downward path, and softly saying : 

''Nay ! — for such grace and youth must not be spurned ! 
I was not made for penance and for praying : 

" Some last, best, lover waits me ! " So, she runs 
Laughing, adown the slope — distantly hearing 

Gay murmurings of the town, and pleasant tones 
Of pipe and lute ; and feet of hamals bearing 

Brides to their bridegrooms, " They who will may tread 
The Noble Eoad," quoth she, " be mine the valley 

Where pleasure lives ! " But Buddha overhead — 
Calm in his cave — beheld Suvarna's folly ; 

And pitied her ; and, pitying, sought to save : 
So (saith the tale) by magic utterance stripping 

His own form off, assumed the aspect, brave 
And winsome, of a Nautch-Girl, featly tripping 

Along the Damsel's path ; more heavenly fair, 
Comelier and brighter than Suvarna's brightness ; 

With tender wistful gaze, and gracious air. 

Soft happy smile, and steps of dancing lightness. 



AMBER AND LAZULITE. 107 

Amazed, enchanted, " Ah, thou loveliest One ! " 
Suvarna cries : ''Oh, not of Earth, but Heaven ! 

What is thy name ? what errand g«est thou on ? 
Beautiful, perfect. Sister ! art thou given 

" To comfort and confirm me ? Come with me ! " 
Answered the stranger, — soft as running water. 

Or wood-doves cooing — " Sweet such company ! 
I am content I " And so Suvarna brought her 

With tender hand in tender hand enlacing. 

And hearts close-beating, and commingling eyes, 

Far down the hill. As that bright pair went pacing, 
Melted with gentle love Suvarna sighs/ 

" Shiva ! how fair thou art ! th' Asoka's honey 
Draws not the sunbird as thou drawest me \ 

More than to list the wisdom of the Muni 
It were to rest thy head upon my knee, 

" And weave thy waist a girdle with mine arms, 
And press a thousand-times thy mouth of wonder: 

Dear ! let us sit — the sun grows hot ! thy charms 
Ask shade, like palm-buds in the month of thunder ! " 



108 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

So sat they down ; and, locked in close embraces 
Fed on each other's fairness — love for love — 

Hands joined, arms twined, locks intermixed, soft faces 
Nestled together like a dove with dove : 

Till, fondling her to rest, her silk lids kissing. 
Toying with taper hands, and smooth dark skin, 

Suvarna's self sank into sleep, yet pressing 
That beauteous maid her circling arms within. 

All the fierce noon and afternoon they slumber ; 
At eve the Indian girl, starting, awoke : 

I said this was no tale for lady's chamber ! 
Ah, can you bear to hear what terror broke 

On sad Suvarna's gaze ? Clasped to her heart 
A festering corpse tainted the air ; its bones 

Eidged the shrunk flesh ; the putrid inward part 
Blotched it with green and purple ; cold as stones 

Glared its glazed orbs ; all the fair grace was fled 
Like gold fruit mouldered, or a lily's crown 

Withering to foulness ! Oh, that awful Dead ! — 
Suvarna flung her horrid playmate down. 



AMBER AND LAZULI TE. 109 

And shrieked, veiling her eyes ; and ran a space, 
Wringing her palms. Then, nigh at hand, she saw 

Lord Buddha looking on her tearful face 
With countenance of majesty and awe. 

" Daughter ! " spake he, " for this thing thou hast left 
The path which should have led thee unto bliss ! 

Lo ! as the flower fades and the fruit is reft, 
Love ends in parting, Beauty fails to this ! 

" As she was, so shalt thou be, and thy kind ! 

Nay, if it chagrined thee to kiss a skull, 
Be done with Love 1 always — red lips behind — 

Grin those white jaws for flames of funeral ! 

" And worse things be than funeral pyres, or parting ; 

The Spirit, sick with passion and sweet pain. 
Flits back from Death to Life for direr starting 

On Earth's wild wheel, and builds its house again : 

" Since, what thou art, thou makest ! Trishna breeds it ! 

Thine is the prison, and the jailer thou ! 
The snake which poisons man his own heart feeds it ; 

Yet — if thou wilt — wake from this madness now, 



no LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Vanquish thy longings ! Come ! there is no sorrow 
Like Pleasure ; no delight like passions slain ! 

But if thou lust for life the stern To-morrow 
Will find thee lost in thy self-chosen gain, 

" As the gray crane dies by the dried-up lake 
Where she laid foolish eggs. Meditate Truth ! 

Enter the Noble Way ! Wise barter make 
Tor blest Nirvana with thy grace and youth ! " 

Then did Suvarna, with impatient hand, 

Tear from her neck the amber beads and gold : 

Shook down her tresses from their jewelled band, 
And cut, and cast them from her ; wild and bold ; 

And meekly followed Buddh. Was that done well ? 

Ah, Love ] love is so lovely, who can say ? 
I only know this life ' if Love be Hell 

Then Hate is Heaven ! Let us not go her way ! 



D. 



Diamonds ! Now — womanlike — your eyes grow brighter 
Flashing the sparkle back of such fair things ; 

Hold both hands up ! I sent a demon-fighter 
To wrest these wonders from barbaric kings : 

Mash, aliadsh, Mra, hetih ! white, and blue, 
The flaming golden sort, the black, and pink ! 

Here be brave carcanets and cirques for you 

A-blaze with beams, cut sunlike ! Did you think 

Poets were poor ? ISTay ! if our fancy choose 

To delve old Earth, down to her deepest treasures. 

Or spoil black-bearded Sultans, see ! the Muse 
Denies her children no such airy pleasures. 

And wise men w^ot Golconda's brilliant gem, 

Tried in the fire, turns black, mere common fuel. 

But these, my fairy stones, outvalue them, 

Time-proof and flame-proof ! Here 's a beauteous jewel 



112 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

My minion brings — the " Syamantakan ; " 

Satrajita the King worshipped the Sun 
At dawning when his rosy course began, 

At evening when his golden road was run ; 

Eeciting holy Gay air i, and given 

To all high deeds, a pious Prince and tried ; 

"Wherefore one morn — 't is said — that Lord of Heaven, 
The Eegent of the Sun, stood by his side ; 

Unclasped a crest-gem from his crown, and bound it 

On Prince Satrajita, bending in prayer, 
The folk of Dwaraka, much-wondering,, found it 

At the King's throat, burning the dazzled air 

With beams of glory : and the influence shed 
From that enchanted stone caused rain to fall ; 

Averted serpents, pests ; quickened the dead ; 
Brought victories to the Realm, fortune to all 

If good men wore it ; but an evil one 

Died of its lustre. Oh, you laugh ! yet listen : 

Prasena, the King's brother, put- it on 

And rode a-hunting with that gem a-glisten 



DIAMONDS. 113 

Over his liead-clotli ; and a Lion slew 

Horseman and horse ; bvit Jambaban the Bear 
Killed the strong beast, and took the spoil, and threw 

The sun-gem to his youngest cub to wear : 

For Krishna tracked their foot-prints ; pierced the wood ; 

Came to the cavern black, heard the Bear mother 
Say : " Sleep, my Babe ! now will our days be good ; 

This is the Sun's great Diamond, and none other ! " 

She, seeinp^ Krishna, " Ahi ! ahi 1 " roared : 

Then Jambaban rushed forth, and waged fierce fight : 

But lost the Sun-stone to its doughty Lord ; 
AVho died a-bed, slain for that jewel bright. 

A wild, rude, Sanskrit story 1 Yes ; but wrought 
"With touches of old wisdom 'broidered in it ! 

Flash '' Syamantakan " in light of thought 

And note this gleam : — white knowledge, if we win it. 

Is granted from One Source — for joy or dolor — ■ 
To whomso hath it. Prince, or Man, or Beast, . 

Yet, as each crystal by its inner color 

Stains the pure beam enkindled from the East, 



114 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

So shall the nature of each soul, endoubled 
By will on mind, dye fair or dark that ray. 

Oh, you may wear this Diamond, Dear ! untroubled 
Look ! on your neck it glitters clear as Day ! 



E. 



Emeralds ! The color, Fanny ! of the light 
Sifted tlu'OLigh lime-leaves on a summer-noon ; 

Or curl of crested wave, when foam-bells bright 
Fringe the green furrows of the sea in June. 



Such should true emeralds be ! green — it is said — 
As throat of paroquet ; or spark quick-twinkled 

From fire-fly's lamp ; or fresh unfolded blade 
Of water-grass ; or lotus-leaf unwrinkled 

New risen 'mid the pool, or glow which fringes 
The gleaming amethysts in the peacock's train : 

Sourindro Mohun holds " all Virtue hinges 
On tints like these, and, if there show a stain 

" Yellowish or clouded, do not seek to heal 

Snake-bites with such, nor carve a love-name on 
them ! " 

But mine are " Marakats " whose hearts reveal 
Greener and greener glories as you con them ; 



Il6 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

A necklace for a queen ! Not that you need it ! 

One gem-mark was already on your neck 
Set by the Power who made us — as I read it — 

Your throat with one soft little foil to speck 

For contrast's sake : as lovely dames, who brightened 
With high-bred charms King Louis' court or Anne's, 

Laid on their damask cheeks patches which heightened 
The tender pink, just spied above their fans. 

Yet, be you heedful of this lucent jewel, 

Soft as the moon-ray seen through leaf-green waves 

By those sea-maids whose love, earnest but cruel. 
Draws down the sailor, dead, to their cold caves : 

For wise men write that, like as diamonds hidden 

Under the pillow of a sleeping bride. 
Will make her closed lips open, all-unbidden, 

To tell if ever any lips beside 

Touched their ripe crimson, so the Emerald's hue — 
By reason that this is the stone of Faith — 

Eeports when plighted lovers prove untrue. 
Ever so widely parted ! Mansoor saith : 



EMERALDS. HJ 

It bourgeons for true love, like s^orays of henna; 

But withers, at a broken vow, to white. 
Or falls in tintless fragments. Avicenna 

Bade breathe upon it, at the morning light, 

And, if the One belov'd were false, a mist 

Would pass athwart its verdant lustre, telling 

Of oaths forsworn ! When frail Zuleika kissed 
Yusuf, — her Lord, in Pharaoh's palace dwelling. 

Knew by his signet. Doubt you that was so ? 

Yet think how stones are built in Earth's abysses ! 
What wonderful dark secrets Gnomes must know ! 

How they may hear men's wdiispers, sighs, and kisses, 

Living in gems — as Celsus held they live ! — 

When George the Third was throned, an emerald fell 

Out from his crown ; and, did the Fates forgive ? 
America was lost ! you know it well ! 

But still you smile — American by birth — 

Thinking that loss a gain ! Well, I '11 -be grave ! 

Esteem the emerald noblest stone of Earth 
When you shall hear the Queen of Sheba gave 



Il8 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

An emerald vase to Suleiman the King, 

Cut from the mother-crystal — flawless, shining — 

By life-long labor. Oh, a perfect thing, 

Leek-green, playing to blue and gold ! Eeclining 

Within his summer-tent Suleiman bade 

Amru his steward bear it to the Palace : 
At the first step which bearded Amru made 

Down sank he dead ! The precious carven chalice 

Had fall'n, in ruined beauty ; but, a wTctch — 
White with the third degree of leprosy — 

Begging against the gate, his arm did stretch, 

And caught the glowing cup, — and saved ! And, see ! 

Clean grew his flesh, again, as babe's new-born ! 

Then the King gave command Balkis the Queen, 
Be brought to audience on the morrow's morn ; 

And, awful-eyed, he told what deeds had been : 

How this was dead, that healed. But she replied, 
Low-laughing ; " King ! It was not cut to give 

Into the hands of liars ! Amru died 

Touching the Gem of Truth ; thy slave will live 



EMERALDS. II9 

" Henceforward whole, because whole was his mind ! 

The mother-stone of this had virtues vast ; 
Only true lips must touch it ! False will find 

Thy Hermon honey slay therein ! 'T will cast 

" All ills from such as keep a sinless heart I " 
Then quoth King Suleiman, " Which man is he, 

Save my poor Syrian who did bear the smart 

Of God's hard hand — yet love Him ? Let liim be 

" My Steward ! Let the dreadful Cup be laid 
Within the Temple of the Lord ! " So fell it 

To keeping of the Priests. When Caesar made 
Judsea a spoil, some Eoman lord did sell it 

To one who kept that " furnished upper room " 
In whose sad walls the Master sat at meat 

With His disciples, ere the deed of doom. 

And the Last Supper's bread did meekly eat ; 

And the Last Supper's wine meekly did pour 
Saying : ''' These be my Body and my Blood ! 

Do this in my remembrance ! " At that hour 
The emerald cup of Sheba 't was which stood 



120 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

At Christ's right hand ; and in that cup did glisten 
The noblest wine which ever vine did shed ; 

Soothing with peace the souls of all who listen, 
Feeding the spirits of the quick and dead. 

Then the Crusaders won it ! Ninety fell 

Fighting round Godefroi for the beaker golden : 

That Cup which kissed the mouth of Christ — they tell 
Was wet with gore I A Paynim of the Soldan 

Lay, slain by twenty wounds, clutching the thing. 

The soldiers of the Cross freighted a ship — 
Proud Genoa's swiftest caravel — to bring 

The prize to Italy : and no man's lip 

Dared touch it, all those quiet centuries 

It lay in San Lorenzo. Next, it came 
To France, — or Spain, some tell : but he, who is 

Our Master, and the noblest English name 

Of living singers — holds (in Arthur's lay), 

Arimathoean Joseph brought it here 
To Glastonbury, where the black-thorn spray 

Blossoms at Christmas, every mindful year ; 



EMERALDS. 121 

Nay, that one saw it ! saw the glorious Grail ! 

(Percival's Sister — pious, meek, a maid) 
Glide, with a sudden radiance, rosy, pale, 

Down a long silvery moon-path, through the shade : 

" Rosy," " rose-red " — he sings — " and, in it, beatings, 
As though alive," and music, heavenly- tender 

Better than we can blow or touch, with meetings 
Of tones celestial ; and a burning splendor 

Of Angels' feathers, fanning airs unfelt ; 

And crimson samite draped ; and stars which darted 
Hither and thither, leaving lines that melt 

In sparkles on the Blue ; and dim shapes started 

Forth from the Void ! Yet, only three, — or two — 
Believed with Arthur ; he " who knew alway 

Himself no vision, and the high God knew 
No vision," nor Lord Christ. But still I say 

The, Cup was Emerald, glassy-green ! I trow 
Where now it is, but dare not have it given ; 

Could even Galahad dare ? Could Arthur ? No ! 
Dear lips of Christ ! Rich wine, vintaged in Heaven ! 



LiGURE ! tlie holy " Leshem," now I bring, 
Judaea's Gem, Jacyntlms styled of old : 

Mark liow the sunbeams flood with gold this thing, 
And how its dark heart stains th' imparted gold ! 

Jacynth, the stone which has a sister-flower ; 

The jewel wine-red, and the blossom, too : 
These both were snow-white once, until the hour 

When God Apollo Hyacinthus slew. 

Ever since then at, at is on the blossom 
And at at writ upon the stone as well ; 

And the life-blood from the Greek boy's hurt bosom 
Mars both with blackness, — so old legends tell. 

Ligures they wore, set in an iron torque 
At Eome, on midnights, laying Lemures 

"When May's Ides came, for then the Ghosts did walk ; 
Then were the Lcmurcdia. All the trees 



JACYNTHS, 123 

Drowsed in the Court ; streets sleeping still — no sound ! 

Save if an owl screeched, or a town-dog bayed 
Seeing the sheeted Shades pass o'er the ground 

Tip-toe, a-glide, with eyes which made afraid. 

But he would steal — the House-master — barefoot, 

Softly, not speaking any word for dread ; 
Yet snapping oft his fingers, if some root 

Of vine or fig tripped him, like some one dead 

At devilibii tricks. But, when — all mute — he came 
Safe to the fountain, there he laved his face, 

And hands ; and rubbed the Ligure, whispering name 
Of every restless Lar haunting the place. 

Next in his mouth he put the nine beans black, 
But must not glance behind, turning to go ; 

While, one by one, he flung them o'er his back, 
Muttering ''his fahis meam redimo 

" Domum ! " " With these black beans I buy content." 
Ite, paterni Manes ! '' Good Souls, quit ! " 

Then, nine times beat a sheet of brass, and sent 
The Ghosts to Hades, where their fellows flit. 



124 LOTUS AND JEWEL 

Poor Ghosts! Love would not fear! Love dreads not 
death, 

Nor doom, nor darkness ! See this Jacynth brought 
From Hedjaz ! On its gold a verse which saith 

" With thee was well, Beloved ! " — and, inwrought 



"O' 



The Cross of Christ with Islam's crescent moon ! . . . 

A Christian maiden loved a Muslim youth. 
And he loved her ; oh, heart and soul, Majnun 

Loved Mariam the Nazarene. Li sooth 

One look wrought all ! Young Majnun did repair 
Mosque-wards to pray ; the loud-voiced Muazan 

Stood white against the blue ; in either ear 

Pressing his thumb, and crying, " Aslihacl-do-an 

'' La-illahn-hd-la-ho ! " " Ye Faithful ! know 
There is no God but God ! " Hyaul-as-salaoi 

" Quicken your steps to pray ! " As-saUa-to 
Khyrun iiiin an-naum, " Better, Believers ! that 

" Ye pray than sleep ! " This cry was in his ears. 
The faith of Allah in his heart firm kept ; 

When Mariam passed — and glanced: and lo! the years 
Found their crowned instant: Love, full-plumed, up 
leapt ! 



JACYNTHS. 125 

Beautiful was she as upon its stalk 

The tulip newly nodding ; heavenly -sweet 

The music of her voice ; when she did walk 

The glad grass seemed to kiss her light fine feet ! 

Face, form, as 't were a Houri in the house ; 

Eyes so divinely lustrous that their splendor 
Filled every heart with worship ; and her brows 

Drawn like black bows over the eyelids tender, 

And s^^adowy lashes ; and her teeth of pearl 
Between the rose-leaf lips ; and rounded arms, 

And high white bosoms ! Such a Christian Girl 
The Prophet had forgotten for her charms 

Amina and Khadidja ! So they loved, 
Body and soul and blood blended to one 

In burning passion ; and this passion proved 
Sorrow, as always. Majnun was Said's son 

Sheykh of the Gate, a hot Believer : she 
Sole child of Nicolas the Merchant. Never 

Dared they to meet if night's complicity 

Veiled not their trembling joys. Cruel ones ever 



126 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Watched them, mcensed an Infidel's pale face 

Should draw an Islamite with Sorcery ; 
Incensed a Maid of Christ should yield her place 

'Mid saints, a Muslim's Light o' Love to he. 

But; through the jealous lattice of her bower 
Sometimes he took the comfort of her eyes, 

And by the lute's low voice, or some dropped flower 
Knew it was well with her, or otherwise. 

For many waters shall not overflow, 

Nor sharpened daggers daunt, nor angry faces 

Affright, nor bitter doctrines check, nor woe 
Change a true love, which in the holy places 

Kneels nearest God. Yet, on our little star 
Purged must it be by Sorrow's fellowship ; 

And pale the visages of lovers are 

With earthly griefs, when happy lip meets lip 

In those Elysian meads where Death is dead. 

So, on this parted pair, and on their city 
Fell evil times ; the Plague, with footsteps red 

Strode through the Land, slaying — sans pause or 
pity — 



JACYNTHS. 127 

Wife, husband, youth and age. A strong man stood 
One moment whole, — the next, there crept a thrill, 

Like the cold breath of Azrael, through his blood ; 
His eyes dimmed breath came quick, body grew 
chill; 

Spasms rent his frame ; his poisoned flesh waxed white 
With blotches ; soon he sank in mortal pain ; 

Save where, after deep trance, Nature's kind might 
Flung the taint forth : — then quick he rose again. 

Thus, on the self-same day, the Pestilence 

Smote these fair lovers, fated bitterly. 
Sighed Majnun, 'mid his friends : " Now go I hence, 

Never again my Lady s face to see I 

" Never again in this world ! Nay — and worse ! 

Never in that beyond ; for she will be 
Where Christians are. Sing not another verse 

Of the Death-Sura ! Pray no prayers for me 

" To Allah ! If a Mussulman I die 

I shall gain Paradise, but not with her ; 

Christ ! take me where she goes ! Lord Isa, I 
Am Nazarene, as Mariam ! " The stir 



128 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Of MoUahs rending robes, and curses bitter 
Of angry kin, his earnest accents drown ; 

In a waste place the bearers of his litter 
Unburied flung that outcast's body down. 

But while for Mariana's sake Majnun forswore 
Friends, Faith, and Paradise, his lady lay 

Sick as to death — not knowing how they bore 
Her chosen forth — and all that piteous day 

'' Majnun ! " she sighed, " Oh, Majnun, Pearl of Lovers ! 

Death cometh, and we shall not meet again ! 
Nevermore, my Soul's Life ! the black grave covers 

Thy poor white Dove, whIiBe feathers thou wert fain 

" Ofttimes to smooth and kiss ; and, — woe is me! — 
Whither I go there canst thou never come ; 

For thou art of the Prophet's tribes ; and we 
Another people, with another home 

" Beyond this world. But, see now, Jesu tender ! 

In all thy Father's Houses which would give 
Best to my soul ? what untold joy and splendor 

Could comfort Mariam, if she might not live 



JACYNTHS. 129 

'' Forever, and forever, and forever 

With Majnun, be that Heaven, or be it Hell ? 

If he may come where Thou art never — never — 
Christ, my Lord ! then let me go to dwell 

" In what place for his peace Allah is keeping ! " 
And those around her bed chided the Maid, 

Deeming she raved ; but dreamlike, as if sleeping, 
Soft went she on, and this in whispers said : 

" Dear God, forgive ! if pardon for such sin 
Hath been or can be ; still, I cannot take 

A path beyond the tomb he walks not in, 

A heaven he will not share. Therefore, I make 

'' Sad choice, but settled : —letting go Thy love 
Ah, gentle Christ ! lest I lose his, and sit 

Amid Thine angels in the bliss above 

Winning Thy blessed peace, and hating it 

" For lack of Majnun. Is it Heaven's command 
None shall attain it, save at thy fair feet ? 

Then he will not attain ! But I must stand 
Beside Majnun before the judgment -seat ! 
9 



I30 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Oh, any Death save parting ! any doom 

Except what sunders us ! Forgive, dread Lord! 

Friends, is it evening ? round me swims the room ! 
Listen ! bury sad Mariam in the yard 

" Where lie the Muslims of our quarter. Yea ! 

I bid ye list — I, who was ]N"azarene 
All my true maiden years, die here to-day 

A Mussulman! ! What his faith hath been 

" That same is mine ! hear me ! I testify 

There is no God but Allah, and " They smote 

The little trembling lips, and drove that cry 
Of tender heresy back in her throat, 

AVhose milky beauty throbbed — and hushed. And, then; 

Scorning the renegade, they tore the Cross 
From her cold breast, and bade the " bearing-men " 

In that waste spot her shamed body toss 

Where Majnun's lay. So, thus it was beheld, 
When the Moon rose upon the dismal plain. 

The jackals, prowling 'mid the corpses, yelled 
And fled, to see a dead man rise again ; 



JACYNTHS. 131 

For Majnim rose, healed by his trance ; and spied 
Death-pale yet breathing, moving, beautiful, 

Mariam his lady, Mariam at his side ; 

Mariam ! and life not finished ! — Dutiful 

With tenderest lips he touched her face, her head ; 

Warmed with his breast her bosom ; chafed her feet 
Full-softly, like two fair white birds, half-dead ; 

And spake her name, murmuring such love-words sweet 

That through the numbed sense to the drowsy heart 
Stole their awakening music, and she lifted 

Her silken lids, — and gazed — and with glad start 
Flew to his neck. Oh, when were lovers gifted 

With such a splendid moment ? For some space 
Hung they together, feeding life with kisses, — 

Each kiss a cordial — then they left that place 
With faint rejoicing steps. And what long blisses 

Were theirs for many years verse cannot tell. 

Dear ! do you like my Jacynth for its story ? 
Yet, where, at Death, those loving souls did dwell 

Who knows ? God's many names may have one glory ! 



" What ! A gold coin amid these jewelled treasures ! 

Why send me such a relic ? " — so you say — 
" Good to enhance some antiquary's pleasures ; 

Stamped for dead people, in a buried day ! " 

True, now, but look a little ! If one ponder 
The legend of this piece, its gold may shine 

With lustre leaving dull the gems of wonder 
Which I did lay in those dear hands of thine. 

An Aureus of the Eoman Empire — see ! 

And, on its face, in plain imperial letters, 
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS — He 

Was Master of our earth. Eome's iron-fetters, 

Linked over lands and seas, were held by him. 
The awful purple of the Caesars wearing ; 

And triumph-crowned ! for, mark, along the rim 
DEVICTIS MARCOMANNIS. He was bearing 



AN AUREUS. 133 

That year Pannonian laurels ( one — six — eight — 

In era of our Lord ). Gaze on the face 
Pictured from one most noble, wise, and great, 

First of his age, and foremost of his race. 

Consider ! Pious souls have been, but he 

Feared Heaven, worshipped himself! And just have 
been; 
But he, higher than Law, bowed down to be 

Law's officer ! Well-taught, in books deep-seen. 

Daily he sat at school ! Master of war, 

Bloodshed he stayed ; pitied his vanquished foes ; 

Pardoned his haters ! Set far off, a Star 

Of sovereignty, he ranked himself with those 

Born to serve Man ! Enriched with all the East, 
With all the West ; Lord of the wealth of Rome ; 

He lay on earth, drank from the stream, made feast 
Of fruits and roots ! Yet, to rear porch and dome 

Stately at Athens, splendid on old Nile ; 

To dower learning, scatter truth, spread good ; 
To help the thoughts which help mankind meanwhile. 

For those he poured his sesterces in flood ! 



134 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Majestic, melancholy, lofty, mild ; 

Holier than saints, than sages more enrapt ; 
One hour listening to Pronto like a child. 

The next, in royal paludamentum lapped 

Governing the world ! Ah, measure what a man ! 

White in an age dark and unbeautiful : 
Highest, yet humblest : since the kings began 

No heart so kingly, large, and dutiful. 

Eegard him 1 does my Emperor pleasure you ? 

Being but a man I only knoW that here — 
If we shall set apart some three or two — 

The flower of humankind blooms bright and dear. 

This is the best we are ! " Verissimus " 

Hadrian did style him 1 When the Senate named 

Marcus sole Csesar, spake he : " Seat with us 
My Lucius Verus also ; I were blamed 

" Keeping no place upon his Father's throne 

Whose Father loved me." When the eagles fled 

Before the Marcomanni, he alone — 

Loathing red war — the reeling legions led 



AN AUREUS. 135 

To victory. At his life — too pure to please — 
Avidius Cassius aimed, joining foul hands 

With Caesar's beauteous Empress : foiling these 
The loving peoples and the loyal bands 

Slew that arch rebel, sent his severed head 
A tribute to the Court ; but Marcus sighed 

Seeing the bloody gift ; and, musing, said : 
" Happier I were to pardon ! " when he spied 

The accusing list, setting in deadly row 

Names of the plotters, royally he rends 
The scroll to shreds ; quoth he : " Let me not know 

Mine enemies, till I have made them friends ! " 

And as he lived, so died he ; grand and meek, 

Maintaining Antonine's sublimity, 
Who, for last watchword, hardly strong to speak, 

Gave the centurion " Equanimity." 

Hear Marcus teach : " If thou with Gods would'st dwell. 
Keep a contented mind ; follow that guide 

Whom Jove hath lodged within thy breast to tell 
His will, and lead thee to the better side. 



136 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

'' Either the Universe is Chaos, Chance ; 

Or else the Universe is Order, Law ; 
If that — die ! and let pass the drunken dance ; 

If this — live and rejoice, in Love and Awe. 

^' Offer that inner rule of Heaven's high Lord 
A strong soul ripened by the life below ; 

A soldier at his post waiting the word ; 
A heart too grateful to be loath to go. 

'' All which befitteth thee, befitteth me 

Thou Scheme of God ! What to thee cometh right 
To me comes right : if life or death it be 

So let it be ; good is it in my sight, 

" If good in Jove's ! Mother Earth ! I take 
My rest with thee, right gladly lying down ; 

What ! shall the poets praise Athens, and make 
Songs to the City of the Violet Crown, 

" And none praise Jove's great City, where we spent 
Our span of years ? 'T was sweet therein to dwell ; 

Yet being bid to quit, go well content ! 
No tyrant orders ; no harsh laws compel ! 



AN AUREUS. 137 

" Who opened thee the City-gates, now closes ; 

Who named thee freeman, sends thee off the wall : 
Depart obedient ! Is there one supposes 

The Euler of the Eulers knows not all ? 

" Depart submissive, glad ! Die unrepining ! 

There is a Greater guardeth thee than thou, 
Dearer than to thyself thy life's combining 

Was to the Cosmos ; death is better now ! " 

Was he not perfect ? Will you scorn to wear 

His aureus 'mid the gems ? Yet lurking wonders 

Perplex male minds, studying your strange sex, Dear ! 
For gazing on his countenance one ponders 

That grudge Faustina bore him. She — his wife — 

Sharing the Purple, Lady of his glory, 
Stained the imperial honors of his life 

With shameful passions. Nay, I spare the story ! 

They knew it — to the lowest Eoman slave : 
Living he would not punish ; dead he made her 

Obsequies splendid ; stateliest mourning gave, 
And in a glorious milk-white tomb he laid her. 



138 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

Ah, you idll wear ! You sternly judge Faustine ! 

Yet one point more : — his sword he whetted sharp, 
To smite the followers of the Nazarene ; 

Hated the Christians, and burned Polycarp — 

For Eome's great sake ! You lay it by again ! 

But, this — at best — we are ; doubtless, 't is pity 
He could not love our gentle Christ, nor win 

One woman's breast. Still, w^hen he died, his City 

Voted him God ; and every citizen 

Bought bronzes of him, built them shrines at home ; 
Made him their household Lar, their Man of men ; 

Faustina's fool, Christ's foe, crowned saint of Kome ! 



I. 



See now ! an Ivory Casket for your treasures, 
Cut from a tusk some lord of Elephants 

Yielded, besieged amid his forest-pleasures, 
By circling foes. The creamy surface vaunts 

Turquoise, in blue stars set, with lolite. 

That violet-tinted gem which somewhile hides 

In Indian hills. Azures and purples bright 
Play daintily across its sparkling sides ! 

And, look ! the Casket bears so rich a labor 

Of chiselled work, and stones, it may have been 

By day the white delight, at night the neighbor 
Of the soft slumbers of some Hindoo Queen. 

It may be wrought — who knows ? of ivory 
Taken from tooth of Eaja Megh Koomar. 

A famous Prince of Magadha was he. 
Gentle in peace, and generous in war, 



140 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

An elephant, in liis last life but one, — 

'T is the Jain story — for a woodland-fire 
Brake forth, consuming trees and grass. Undone 

The forest-creatures died. Wider and higher 

The red tongues raged ; whereat this kingly beast 
Betook himself for flight ; when — from the reeds — 

A striped bush-mouse, of all things last and least, 
Leaped forth, and ran between his feet, and pleads 

To Eaja Megh : " Ahi ! great Prince ! permit 

I take asylum from this dreadful flame 
Betwixt thy mighty legs ! " Megh looked on it : 

" Small art thou 1 " quotha " yet is life the same 

" Brother ! for thee as me. • Stay where thou art ! 

I never spurned aught living, nor shall now ; 
Sit close and fear not ; I will not depart ! " 

Therewith he faced the fire, wielding a bough 

Of thick-leaved Sal, to beat the heat away ; 

Which curled and hissed, and scorched, blistering one 
limb 
And all his length of trunk, so sore — they say — 

Megh died ere night ; but saved the mouse. And him 



lOLITE AND IVORY. 141 

In the next life the just Gods made a king. 

Mark, too, your casket's milky sides, how full 
Of imagery ! Here 's a subtle thing — 

A banyan-tree, whereat, with steadfast pull, 

Toils a tusked Elephant to lay it low ; 

And 'mongst the dropping branches two which "bear 
A long-tailed clinging monkey, feeding so 

On the red figs, he has no eyes to fear 

Those two rats, one so black, and one so white, 
Which nibble at the branches : but beneath 

A pit gapes, where you see the lurid light 

Of snake-shapes twisting, and grim signs of death. 

Shall I interpret ? Life 's the banyan-tree ; 

Which Death, the elephant, in dust would lay ; 
And the poor foolish ape is Man ; and, see ! 

This black rat is the Night, the white the Day, 

Which ever gnaw, in turn, at life's thin branches 
Whereto man clings ; till, blind with sense and sin, 

Fat with world's figs, down rolls he to those trenches 
Dug by Death's feet, with serpents hid therein. 



LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

But here 's a fairer legend carved! A balance 
Wherein they weigh a Prince against a Dove ; 

An Eagle looking on ! the Eagle's talons 
Bloody ; the Prince's face alight with love ! 

Shall I interpret ? Piaja Sagaras 

This is ; for kindly heart of large renown : 

One morning, when in full Divan he was, 

A white dove through the lattice fluttered down, 

Her silver plumage pink with blood, and ruffled ; 

And, following on fierce wings, an Eagle. She, 
Nigh dead with fear, her fainting pinions muffled 

In the King s breast-cloth, seeking sanctuary 

Close to his heart. Then screamed the cruel bird 
" Give me my prey, just King ! " But Sagaras 

Fondling the Dove, said : " Never is it heard 
A prince repelled his suppliant ! " Hot as brass 

Glared the great Eagle's eyes while it did cry : 
" I conjure thee by justice ! She is mine ! 

We drave her from the wood, my mate and I, 
We hunger ! give the pigeon's meat — or thine ! ' 



lOLITE AND IVORY. I43 

" Tliou hast tliy right," answered the King, " but I 
The right to ransom ; bring me scales, and weigh 

My flesh against this dove's." So, fearlessly 
Drew he a sword, and lopped his hand away. 

The bird weighed more ! More of his bleeding flesh 
Shore that kind Prince ; yet still mounted the scale ! 

Add what he would, heaping fresh gifts on fresh. 
The Dove proves aye the heavier ! To prevail 

Into the bplance then himself he laid. 

Pallid and fainting, " for " quoth he, '' a King 

Were liever dead, and eagle's food, than made 
A shame through ages, doing such a thing ! " 

Thereat — the legend runs — the Drums of Heaven 
Beat tender music, and strange blossoms rained 

Out of the sky ; and from those oceans seven, 

Which ring our Earth, came Spirits of Bliss, constrained 

By such sweet deed to show themselves, and praise 

My Eaja carven here : also the Dove 
Shook off her feathers, and great Uma was 

Shiva's fair Queen, Mother of Light and Love ! 



144 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And the black Eagle into Dliarma turned 
The God of Justice ; and the Eaja's hurts 

Were healed ; and all the hearts of people burned 
With worship ! So had Mercy lier deserts. . . 

Another sculptured side ! A mango-tree 
Laden with fruit : one who a hatchet bears 

Of black huB ; one breaking a branchlet, — see ! — 
Blue-visaged ; while a third, red-featured, tears 

Eaw mangoes down : a fourth sits in the leaves 
Eating the ripest ; — he is yellow : five 

Is this light tinted Eishi who receives 
The fallen fruit, and passes. Shall I give 

Interpretation ? 'T is a parable 

Of mortals using life and living things ; 

A Hindoo Artist's fable ; he would tell 

By colors who is wise, and which man brings 

Shame on himself and sorrow to his kind. 

Black, with vile selfishness, is he that goes, 
To hew the tree for mangoes to his mind ; 

Conquerors and crimmals are such as those. 



lOLITE AND IVORY, 145 

And not quite black — but blue — this egotist 
Who breaks a branch to reach some rosy fruit ; 

Such be seducers, profligates ; I wist 

Small thought have they of the sad withered shoot ! 

A little fairer-tinted — red — is he 

Who will not harm branchlet or trunk ; yet mounts 
Into the thickest harvest of the tree, 

Plucking what comes : and this man — yellow — 
counts 

Better complexion still, who only takes 

The ripe fruits, made for eating. But the best 

Behold him in that patient saint who makes 
The fallen ones suffice ! His hues attest — 

(White or wheat -colored) — that the carver meant him 
The sweet contented soul that seeks small share 

Gratefully, and goes by: since Heaven hath sent him 
To serve and work, not feast and wanton here. 

Ah ! the last panel ! Asia's secrets those, 

Cut with proud patience on the creamy tooth ! 

Here you divine a form serene which shows 

Smooth perfect limbs, and glorious grace of youth ; 

10 



146 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

One side all male, and one all tender woman ; 

The right-half God, but Goddess all the left ; 
With braided hair, full bosoms, beauties human : 

Over its head a bat, and water-eft ; 

Beneath, a climbing plant shoots three-fold leaves, 
With pale blue flowerets. 'T is our Hindoo's way 

To teach how " Maya's " subtle art deceives 
By double sexes, forms of things which play 

In various disguise of " He " and " She," 

Of serpent, beast, and bird ; of moving lives, 

And lives not moving. " All is fantasy ! 
There is one Being only ! " this he strives 

To carve upon the casket, showing us 
Ardhanarishwara — female and male — 

Who hath both natures ; and the bat proves thus 
That mouse and bird unite, as skin and scale 

Meet in the eft. The plant with triple leaf 
Ah, that 's a marvel of our Indian jungle ! 

Dull botanists — who flout the sweet belief 
That Dryads live, and with harsh Latin bungle 



10 LITE AND IVORY. 1 47 

Tree use and beauty — those have never told 

Half ardently Desmodium's miracle 1 
If you should watch its buds of blue and gold 

And light green leaflets, you would see them tell 

Minute by minute the day-watches all, 

And all the hours of night, ever alert ; 
One petiole rising while the others fall; 

An herb which lives and moves, and doth assert 

A soul cf sentience overpassing bounds 

Set for the leafy world. Have we not seen 

In sunny Singhalesian garden-grounds, 

The grasses shrink where our quick steps had been, 

Modest and timid as a maid that blushes, 

But is not to be touched ? Flow^ers, too, there be 

Which sparkle flame in opening ; one that flushes 
Scarlet, at sunset only. Briefly, he — 

Our Hindoo — thinks men, creatures, trees all one •, 

He calls Desmodium a mystic name. 
But close the Casket's lid ! I were undone 

If this should weary you. Now shines the flame 



D. 



Of Dawn-stone ! rare Sandastros ! — piedra jpura ! 

My servants bring this gem from Yucatan : 
See ! in one light 't is ruddy like Aurora, 

And in another pallid gold. ... A man 

Died, save for this ! Ah, but so long ago 
You need not sigh ; yet, if you ask the story, 

Believe that every jewel here below 

Hath some Familiar dwelling in its glory. 

How shall we question now ? Mark, on the gem, 
Strange signs incised — 'Mexican symbols graved 

By Montezuma's priests — the speech of them 
Was Aztec : let the stone be three times waved. 

And say, in ancient Aztec phrase, demurely, 

" Sprite of the Jewel, speak ! whence springest thou ? 

What is thy tale ? " — Oh, it will answer, surely ! — 
Behold ! a little brown-eyed damsel now 



DA WN-STONE. 1 49 

Appears, in feathered garb, and plaited tresses, 
As the soft Indians used when Cortez came ! 

Listen ! with low obeisance she addresses 
The mistress of the stone : 

" My wearer's name 
" Was young Ayani — daughter to the priest 

Of Tezicatlepotchli, God of day ; 
In Anahuac, at the yearly feast, 

The fairest captive youth they chose, to lay 

''Bound, on the Blood-Eock of the Pointed Hill — 
The Teo-calli — for thus was our Law : — 

The people beat the snake-drums, and blew shrill 
Their pipes of bone, whilst the Chief-Priest did draw 

" His knife of splintered itztli through the flesh 
Cutting from East to West ; and so did take 

The throbbing heart away, and burn it fresh 
Upon the Sun-God's altar. But to make 

" Costlier that noble offering to Heaven, 

Por twelve glad moons before the day of doom 

Honor and love to the fair boy were given ; 
They built him in the Golden House a room 



ISO LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Like a God's chamber, gay with many a thing 
Of grace and ornament ; and richly laid 

With cougar-skins and mats : where slaves did bring — 
Each eve — baskets of grapes, and cakes new-made, 

''With cactus-wine and honey, spreading soft 
His bed for love and sleep ; since always there 

Tender ones waited, waving high aloft 

Fans of pied feathers, that the fragrant air 

" Might kiss his brow and cheeks. And lovely gardens 
Opened beyond the chamber, where there grew 

All the fair fruits our southern summer hardens, 
Stately great trees, and blooms of every hue. 

" And there would lie Ayani, with her lover. 
For she was noblest, and our law was this ; 

That — till those twelve good moons were past and over — 
The sweetest lips, the proudest breasts were his, 

" The best the Land could give. Mine was the jewel 
Her throat bore when its dusky beauty spread — 

In those swift hours of joy, tender and cruel, — 
A pillow for his happy, fated head. 



DAWN-STONE. ISI 

" There would Ayaiii lie, making delight 

For him whose heart must smoke upon the stone : 

Girding with buds of river-roses white 

That breast the flint must open, flesh and bone ! 

"And she would sing our ancient temple-song — 
Sad and bewitching — sa}' ing Life is this : 

A dream whose vague delight lasts never long ; 
A swift night swallowing up brief day of bliss ; 

" Or, wi^h low kissing-cry would call away 

The humming birds, that quivered at the blooms, 

To nestle in her neck and hands, and lay 
The honey-quest aside, trilling their plumes 

" To please tlie pair. This glory of my gem, 
Which trembles with the colors of the Morn, 

Hath no such radiance as the tints of them — 
Winged jewels of their Garden. * One was borne 

" On pinions of pale green, melting to black 
By bronze and russet passages, its head 

Alight with blazing ruby, and its back 

Afire with flashing sapphire. Some word said 



152 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Would bring that tiny splendor, glittering, 

Tortli from the trumpet-blossom's perfumed cup, 

To brood amid Ayani's hair, each wing 
Brilliantly spread, and the crest lifted up 



" A tongue of flickering flame. And one bird — dressed 
All silver and soft blues, witli tufts of silk 

At each white flank — would fly fond to her breast. 
And hang between its hills of tinted milk, 

" Darting in play his bill's black slender curve, 
Now this side and now that, as if what grew 

On those hill- tops were sweet enough to serve 
For flowers and nectar. And another flew — 

" Whene'er Ayjlni summoned — to her lip, 

A little starry speck w^hence keen beams gleamed 

Of gold and purple, in bright fellowship 

With dark green g€)rget, and a neck that seemed 

" Plumaged from rainbows. ' Feed ! my Eose-ball, Feed ! ' 
The girl would murmur, and the bird would poise 

His bright enamelled breast, and blossomy head 
Before her open laughing mouth, with noise 



DAWN-STONE. 1 53 

" Of whirring wings ; plunging the amethyst 
Of his small frontlet, and his gold-mailed neck 

Into that rosy hollow — sw^eet, I wist, 
As any rose's heart — and feign to suck 

" Ayani's honey ! Yet another minion — 
Corseletted all in crimson scales, and thighed 

With topaz and with turquoise ; either pinion 

Splashed with red gilding, and each shoulder dyed 

" Blood-purple — he would perch upon her ear, 
Sit in its pearly cavern ; you had thought 

A live fire-opal from Papantla there 

Bourgeoned and blazed ! With other cries she brought 

" Other fair woodland creatures ; lizards plated 
With gray and amber armor; mottled snakes 

Pink-mouched and sheeny ; great-eyed musk-deer, sated 
With browsing flowers. The jacamar, who makes 

" A nest in reeds, left its red eggs to go 

Where the girl called ; the grunting peccaries 

Gazed at her through the aloes ; white as snow 
The egrets clustered round her. He that lies 



154 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" Couched in the canes, a terror of the wood, — 

The clouded jaguar, — when Ayani sung 
Dropped the red fragments from his jaws, and stood 

At the brake's edge to hear. Slowly unclung 

" His coils the anaconda from the limb 

Where he lay knotted ; and, all spell-bound, drew 

His massive freckled folds through twilights dim 
Of the deep forest, hastening near to view 

" That sweet-voiced woman. All along the leaves 
Of the Eoyal lilies, where their lush growth lies 

Crowning with green and red the river-waves, 
The plovers raced to greet her. Butterflies — 

" Azure and silver-dappled, black and gold — 

Drew towards her as they draw to some bright blossom ; 

Ah, for a jewelled queen ! 't was to behold 
Ayani with the sun-birds in her bosom, 

'' And those gay fluttering fulgencies alight 
On her dark hair ! She had such charm of love 

'T would stay the nursing toucan in her flight, 
And fetch the hungry condor from above 



DAWN-STONE. 155 

" To circle nigh : the clavin — singing sweet 
Beyond all warblers — and four-handed folk, 

Bonnetted, furred, hook-tailed, all to her feet 
Crept wooingly, and took the gentle yoke, 

" In joy and peace, of young Ayani. So 
Flew the delicious days, till that day came, 

The last of love. ' Honey of life ! Dost know ? ' 
The captive said : ' to-morrow morn the flame 

" ' Will eat the heart which so adores thee ? ' ' Dear ! 

The Girl made answer : ' I was set to soothe 
Thy dyijng times, not love thee : yet, this year 

Hath made our spirits one ! Ayani's youth, 

" ' Ayani's mirth and comfort go with thee ! 

Alas, the hateful stone ! the cruel knife ! 
The awful God ! But, if this offering be, 

How shall I live alone, who am thy wife, 

" ' Great with thy child ? Look now ! 't is dark ! array 
thee" 

In my bark mantle ; bind round thy waist 
My belt of feathers. Fly ! If any stay thee. 

This jewel is the sign ! Speak nothmg ! Haste ! 



156 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

" ' Show them my stone, and pass ! Hide in the wood ! 

Less bitter are the beasts than men who pray ! ' 
Vainly he clung and kissed ; vainly withstood, 

She thrust him forth to save him. When 't was day 

" They found him fled. Then, all the angry folk 
Cried death against Ayani, who had cheated 

Great Tezicatlepotchli of his smoke 

Of sacrifice. But she their spite defeated ; 

" For, lying bound, she summoned from the brake, — 
By some low word her woodland creatures knew, 

And understood — a slender ribboned snake 

Which coiled, obedient, round her wrist, and drew 

'' One ruby blood-drop, with right -loving tooth. — 

So did Ayani win escape. My gem 

Hath this for story 1 " 

If thy tale be truth, 

Sprite of the Stone ! who would not pity them ? 



E, 



EucLASE I and Essonite 1 the last and rarest — 
With Evening Emerald, surnamed Peridot ! 

Kow will fair ladies envy you, my Dearest, 
For this full Jewel-Casket you have got ! 

Euclase ! Not many an eye hath viewed the wonder ! 

A secret of Brazilian streams, which bring 
Once in twelve moons to sight — the schist- drifts under 

The tender glories of this subtle thing. 

Sometimes a honey-yellow, sometimes green 

As leaves against the light, then shot with flakes 

Of pale sea-blue, but all three Colors seen 
As Nature wills ; for the keen crystal takes 

No touch of wheel. Its fragile charms forbid 
A goldsmith's labor ; when the Maker made 

Euclase, " Let there lie, in My Elvers hid. 

One perfect thing man shall not mar ! " He said. 



158 LOTUS AND JEWEL. 

And Essonite — styled " stone of Cinnamon " — 
The garnet Greek and Tuscan used to grave 

With beauty, best and sweetest under sun, 
Faces of Gods, and Heroes great and brave ! 



Gold, fired with crimson beams, so glows this gem, 
Cut to a beetle's shap'e, the sacred Scarab 

Of dead Egyptians. Note the signs of them — 
Quaint hieroglyphs ! Some CEthiop or Arab 

Wore this in life and death ; and no man knows 

His name or deeds ! But your name men shall know 

Eeading these jewelled letters which compose 
Its gentle music ; for my verse will go — 

Glad with the light of Love and you — to days 
When better poets live, and Life, — made strong 

By sheaves of our sad sowing-time — shall praise 
Ladies we sang, and graces of our song. 

Last comes my Peridot, the stone of Eve, 
Tinted as evening skies are when their blue 

Blends with the gold and gray, till we believe 
Asphodel valleys open, and 't is true 



EUCLASE AND ESSONITE. 159 

That blessed spirits tread green meads in Heaven. 

This is the " precious olivine " men trace 
In cliffs of Nile ; and sometimes it is riven 

From those black massy bolts hurled out of space 

Upon our Earth. Whence come they ? Birds of wonder, 

Flying on fearful pinions frorii the Vast 
Wherein all swims ; lighting, mid flame and thunder, 

In the scorched fields. The Indian blacksmith's blast 

Forges a sword therefrom of splendid water : 
I pluck a jewel, Dear ! for Love can bring 

Gladness from grief, high hope from death and slaughter, 
Light out of Darkness, good from everything ! 



OTHER POEMS. 



11 



OTHER POEMS. 



Haifa. 

/^H, Foolish One ! who wonderest if the eyes of lovers 
^-^^ see 

The glory of the Living God in faces blank to thee ; 

If unto them the form belov'd veils more than mortal 

charms, 
And Paradise stands open when " my Lady " spreads her 

arms. 
The Khalif unto Laila said : " Art thou that Maid of fame 
For whom a wanderer in the waste the lost Majnun 

became ? 
By Allah ! not to me thou seem'st as fair as hath been 

told, 
No Rose of all our roses ; no white pearl set in gold ! 
Of all the trees no cypress, of all the stars no moon! '' 
*' Peace, Lord," sad Laila answered, " thou art not my 

Majnun ! " 



She. Under the marble's milk-white satin, 

With cherubim, seraphim, trumpets of Fame, 
And stately scrolls of imperial Latin 
Blazoning proudly each deathless name ; 

I thiiik I could rest in a well-pleased slumber ; 

I think my flesh would be fain of the grave 
If I might be of this glorified number. 

And such a tomb, such epitaphs, have ! 

He. Oh, easily lulled ! and comforted lightly ! 

If I might choose, I would have them give 
To the quick flames, burning clear and brightly, 
Whatever is left of me, after I live. 

Or else, in the kind great arms of the sea — 

Which nothing can cumber, and nothing stain - 

Lay it and leave it. So might I be 

Safe back with the winds and the waters again ! 



IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 1 65 

Site. At least confess 't were a record splendid 
To lie, like Philips, with lovely verse 
Sounding the triumph of life well ended, 
Tenderly wreathing the minstrel's hearse ; 



Was it not grand to win such sweet riddance ? 

" Master ! peaceful hereunder recline ! " 
To be laid in earth with that gentle biddance ? 

" Till Angels wake thee with songs like thine ! 

He. Fair is the verse ; but, I think the Master 
Would rather live on a choral lip ; 
Would liever some warm heart beat the faster 
For musical joy and fellowship, 

In anthems rolling — solemn and certain — 
Or madrigals left us to play and to sing ; 

Than have Angels set to draw Death's curtain, 
And lauds as loud as the praise of a King. 

^lu. Well ! tell me then, was there ever graven 
A farewell softer to spirit fled 
Than Franklin hears in this quiet haven 
Where moor the fleets of our mighty Dead ? 



1 66 OTHER POEMS. 

Cenotaph ? Yes ! — but the beautiful message ! 

Where is one like it ? " Great Sailor-Soul ! 
Sailing now on some happier passage, 

Voyaging hence to no earthly Pole ! '' 

He. Nay ! I have seen what was like it, and better ; 
Far away, on a Syrian hill : 
Not one word ! not an Arabic letter 

Marked where the dead man lay so still ; 

But round his headstone, for sorrow and story, 
A long black braid of tresses was tied ! 

Think how she loved him to give the glory 

Of her hair ! Would you Dear ! if I had died ? 



5lltalanta. 

Greek Atalanta ! girdled high, 

Gold-sandalled ; great majestic Maid ! 

Her hair bound back with silver tie, 
And in her hand th' Arcadian blade 

To pierce that suitor who shall choose 

Challenge her to the Eace — and lose ! 

And — at her side — Hippomenes ! 

Poised on his foremost foot, with soul 
Burning to win — if Pallas please, — 

That course deep-perilous^whose goal 
Is joy or death! Apples of gold 
His trembling fingers do enfold ! 

Oh, girls ! 't is English, as 't is Greek ! 

Life is that course: train so the soul 
That, girt with health and strength, it seek 

One swifter still, who touches goal 
First — or, for lack of breath outdone, 
Dies gladly, so such race was run ! 



1 68 OTHER POEMS, 

Yet scorn not, if, before your feet 

The golden fruits of life should roll — 

Faith, worship, loving service sweet — 
To stoop and grasp them ! So the Soul 

Euns slower in the Eace by these, 

But wins them, and — Hippomenes. 



{From Victor Hugo.) 

Let us be like a bird, one instant lighted 

Upon a twig that swings ; 
He feels it yield — but sings on, unaffrighted, 

Knowinoj he hath his wings ! 



Soul of me ! floating, and flitting, and fond ! 
Thou and this body were life-mates together; 
Wilt thou be gone now ? And whither ? 

Pallid, and naked, and cold. 
Not to laugh, or be glad, as of old ! 



€l)e 2Deptl^^ of t|)e ^ta. 

(On a picture by Mr. Burne Jones, with the motto : 
— hahes quod totd mente petisti 
Infelix !) 

Which is the one we must pity, Master ? 

Who is infelix — the boy, or she 
Drawing him down from his bark's disaster 

To the pebbled floor of her silvery sea ? 
With light keen laughter drawing him down ; 
Gleeful to clasp him — her mariner brown — 
Heedless of life-breath, which bubbles upward, 

So the fair strong body her own may be. 

Who was the one that longed too madly 
To have the wish — and is sorry to have ? 

Do you mean your sailor faced over-gladly 
The toils of the bitter and treacherous wave ; 

The depths which charm, the danger which pleases. 

The death that tempts man's spirit, and teases ; 

And now he has won it, his prize of daring. 
Dragged to the cold sea-maiden's cave ? 



I/O OTHER POEMS. 

Or was it she, the Merman's Daughter, — 

Half soft white woman, half glittering scales — • 
Who, sporting by starlight upon the water, 

Saw him, and passioned — and so prevails ; 
Sent the gale, or the mountainous billow, 
To wash him down to the oozy pillow 
"Where night and day, she will lull her lover, 
'Mid whispering sea-shells, and green sea-dales ? 

And she is to find — poor Child of ocean, 

His mouth set fast, and his blue eyes dim ; 
And lips, and limbs, and hands sans motion, 

And sweet love dumb in the breast of him ; 
And her own wild heart will break to know 
Men cannot breathe in her Blue below, 
Nor mermaidens come to the Blue of his Heaven ; 
Is that your moral, my Painter grim ? 

Say, rather : " terque qyMeTqiia, f dices ! " 

Fortunate, both of them, winning their will ! 

If you paint the deep gray Sea's abysses 
Dare also to plunge to the depths of 111 ! 

For Peace broods under the rough waves' riot, 

And beyond dark Death is delightful quiet ; 



THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. 171 

And once to have loved is good for the Sea-girl, 
And once to have died is better still ! 

I call them happy — yea, " three and more times," 

She hath her Boy ; he hath his rest ; 
And to finish love and life beforetimes 

For Sailor and Mermaid is — may be — best, 
I think she feels, by her subtle laughter. 
That to clasp him was good, whatever comes after ; 
And what should a weary mariner wish for 

Bettei' than sleep by Love caressed? 



C&e J^cabenlp Secret* 

" Sometimes," sighed Lalage: "in hours of sadness, 

A sudden pleasure shines upon the soul. 
The heart beats quick to half-heard notes of gladness, 

And from the dark mind all its clouds unroll : 
How is this, Poet ? You, who know things hidden, 

Whence sounds that under-song of soft content ? 
What brings such peace, unlooked-for and unbidden ? 

Say, now ! Oh, is it truth or accident ? " 

" Dear Maid," I said ! " wisely you ask a poet, 

For there 's my answer, on your upper lip ! 
The Talmud writes : that dimple — as you show it — 

Between the rosy mouth and nose's tip. 
Was stamped by God's own hand, the day he made us. 

When unto each He whispered ' All goeth well ! ' 
But pressed His finger on our lips, and laid us 

Under His secret not to know — nor tell ! " 



5l!n 3IIbtcu. 

India farewell ! I shall not see again 

Thy shining shores, thy peoples of the Sun 
Gentle, soft-mannered, by a kind word won 
To such quick kindness 1 O'er the Arab main 

Our flying flag streams back ; and backwards stream 
My thoughts to those fair open fields I love, 
City and village, maidan, jungle, grove. 
The temples and the rivers ! Must it seem 

Too great for one man's heart to say it holds 
So many many Indian sisters dear. 
So many Indian brothers ? that it folds 

Lakhs of true friends in parting ? Nay ! but there 
Lingers my heart, leave-taking ; and it roves 
From hut to hut whispering " he knows, and loves ! " 

Good-by ! Good-night ! Sweet may your slumbers be, 

Gunga ! and Kasi ! and Saraswati ! 



March 5, 1886, 
S.S^Siam. 



A CLOUD was on the Judge's brow 
The day we walked in Aitwar-Pet ; 

I knew not then, but since I know 
What held his earnest features set : 

That great cause in the Suddur Court ! 

To-morrow judgment should be given ; 
And, in my old friend's troubled thought 

Conscience with prejudice had striven. 

ISTay, nay ! No juster Judge on bench ! 

But Justice in this cause of " Wheatstone's," 
Was hard to do. I could not wrench 

His sombre eyes from Poena' s street-stones. 

Silent we threaded Moti-chouk, 
Paced silent past the Dharma-sala ; 

At last, half petulant, I spoke ; 

" Here is our Sanskrit School — Pat-shala ! 



THE INDIAN JUDGE. 1/5 

" See ! listening to their gray Guru 
The Brahman boys read Hindu cases ; 

Justinian and the Code for you, 

Manu for them ! What solemn faces 

" Eange, in dark ring, around the book 
Wherefrom the old Acharya preaches ! " 

He paused, and, with a wistful look, 

Said : " Might one know what Manu teaches ? " 

So drew we nigh the School, and paid 
Due salutations ; while the Master — 

Proud to be marked by Sahebs — made 
The strong shlokes roll, fuller and faster : 

" Na vismayeta tapasd 

Vadedishtwa cha nanritan 
Na parikirttay et datwd 

Nartti' pyapavaded vij^i^an." 

" Namutra hi sahdyartham 

Pita mata cha tishtatas 
Na jnatir na ]jutraddram 

Tishtati dharina Jcevalas " 



176 OTHER POEMS, 

All down to kasaririnam 

Gravely the Sliastri chants the verses, 
Eocking his head ; while, after him, 

The turbaned class each line rehearses. 

" What is the lesson ? " asked my friend. 
With low salaam, reply was given : 

" Manu's Fourth Chapter — near the end — 
At shloke two hundred thirty-seven." 

Then, turning to the brightest-eyed 

Of those brown pupils round him seated, 

" Gunput," the Shastri said, with pride, 
*' If it shall please my Lords, can read it." 

We nodded ; and the Brahman lad — 

At such great charge shy, but delighted — 

In what soft English speech he had 
The Devanagiri recited : 

" Be not too proud of good deeds wrought ! — 
When thou art come from prayer, speak truly ! 

Even if he wrongeth thee in aught 
Eespect thy Guru ! Give alms duly ; 



THE INDIAN JUDGE. 177 

"But let none wist ! Live, day by day, 

With little and with little swelling 
Thy tale of duty done — the way 

The wise ant-people build their dwelling ; 

" Not harming any living thing : 

That thou may'st have — at time of dying, — 
A Hand to hold thee, and to bring 

Thy footsteps safe ; and, so relying, 

" Pass to the farther world. For none 

Save Justice leads there ! Father, mother, 

Will not be nigh ; nor wife, nor son. 
Nor friends, nor kin ; nor any other 

" Save only Justice I All alone 

Each entereth here, and each one leaveth 

This life alone ; and every one 

The fruit of all his deeds receiveth 

" Alone — alone ; bad deeds and good ! 

That day when kinsmen, sadly turning, 
Forsake thee, like the clay or wood, 

A thing committed to the burning. 
12 



178 OTHER POEMS. 

" But Justice shall not quit tliee then, 
If thou hast served her ; therefore never 

Cease serving ; that she hold thee, when 
The darkness falls which falls forever, 

" Wliich hath no star, nor way to guide. 

But Justice knows the road ; the midnight 
Is noon to her. Man at her side 

Goes through the gloom safe to the hid light. 

" And he who loved her more than all. 
Who purged by sorrow his offences, 

Shall shine in realms celestial 

With glory, quit of sins and senses." 

What made my friend so softly lay 
His hand on Gunput's naked shoulder 

With gentle words of praise, and say, — 
His eyes grown happier and bolder, — 

" I too have been at school ! Accept 

Thanks, Guru ! for these words imparted " ? 

And when we turned away he kept 

Silence no more, but smiled, light-hearted. 



JEANNE. 179 

And, next day, in his Indian Court, 
That summing-up he did declaim us — 

Straight in the teeth of what was thought — 
Which made " His Honor " feared and famous. 



{From Victor Hugo.) 

Jeanne, in the dark room, had dry bread for dinner. 

Guilty of something wrong ; and I — the sinner — 

Crept up to see that prisoner in her cell, 

And slipped — on the sly — some comfits to her. Well ! 

Against the laws, I own ! Those, who with me 

Support the order of society. 

Were furious ! Vainly murmured little Jeanne, 

" Indeed, indeed, I never will again 

Eub my nose with my thumb ! I won't make pussy 

Scratch me ! " they only cried, " The naughty hussy ! 

She knows how weak you are, and wanting sense, 

And sees you only laugh at grave offence : 



l80 OTHER POEMS. 

Government is not possible ! All day 

Order is troubled, influence slips away, 

No rules, no regulations ! nought can mend her ; 

You ruin everything ! " Then I — the offender — 

I hang my head, and say, " There 's no excuse ! 

I know I err ; I know by such abuse. 

Such wrong indulgence, nations * go to pot ; ' 

Put me upon dry bread ! " " Why should we not ? 

We will ! you merit it ! " But my small maid 

From her dark corner looking unafraid 

With eyes divine to see, full of a sense 

Of settled justice, in their innocence. 

Whispered, for me to hear, " Well, if they do, 

I shall bring comfits, Grandpapa, to you." 



^^511 Mamt ^m^t:* 

" AVhose tomb have they builded, Vittoo ! -under this 

tamarind tree, 
With its door of the rose-veined marble, and white dome 

stately to see. 
Was he holy Brahman, or Yogi, or Chief of the Eajput 

line. 
Whose urn rests here by the river, in the shade of the 

beautiful shrine ? " 

" May it please you," quoth Vittoo, salaaming, " Protector 

of all the poor ! 
It v^as not for holy Brahman they carved that delicate 

door ; 
Nor for Yogi, nor Rajput Eana, built they this gem of 

. our land ; 
But to tell of a Ptajput woman, as long as the stones 

should stand. 



1 52 OTHER POEMS. 

" Her name was Moti, the pearl-name ; 't was far in the 

ancient times ; 
But her moon-like face and her teeth of pearl are sung 

of still in our rhymes ; 
And because she was young, and comely, and of good 

repute, and had laid 
A babe in the arms of her husband,^ the Palace-ISTurse 

she was made : 

'' For the sweet chief-queen of the Eana in Joudhpore 

city had died, 
Leaving a motherless infant, the heir to that race of 

pride ; 
The heir of the peacock-banner, of the five-colored flag, 

of the throne 
Which traces its record of glory from days when it ruled 

alone ; 

" From times when, forth from the sunlight,^ the first of 

our kings came down 
And had the earth for his footstool, and wore the stars 

for his crown, 

^ A Hindu father acknowledges paternity by receiving in his arms 
his new-born child. 

2 The E-ajplit dynasty is said to be descended from the sun. 



A RAJPUT NURSE. ' 1 83 

As all good Eajputs have told us ; so Moti was proud 

and true, 
With the Prince of the land on her bosom, and her own 

brown baby too. 



''- And the Kajput women will have it (I know not myself 

of these things ) 
As the two babes lay on her lap there, her lord's, and 

the Joudhpore King's ; 
So loyal was the blood of her body, so fast the faith of 

her heart, 
It passed to her new-born infant, who took of her trust 

its part. 



"He would not suck of the breast-milk till the Prince 

had drunken his fill ; 
He would not sleep to the cradle-song till the Prince was 

lulled and still ; 
And he lay at night with his small arms clasped round 

the Eana's child, 
As if those hands like the rose-leaf could shelter from 

treason wild. 



1 84 OTHER POEMS. 

" For treason was wild in the country, and villanous men 

had sought 
The life of the heir of the gadi/ to the Palace in secret 

brought ; 
With bribes to the base, and with knife-thrusts for the 

faithful, they made their way 
Through the line of the guards, and the gateways, to the 

hall where the women lay. 

" There Muti, the foster-mother, sat singing the children 

to rest 
Her baby at play on her crossed knees, and the King's 

son held to her breast ; 
And the dark slave-maidens round her beat low on the 

cymbal's skin 
Keeping the time of her soft song — when — Saheb ! — 

there hurried in 

" A breathless watcher, who whispered, with horror in 

eyes and face : 
' Oh 1 M6ti ! men come to murder my Lord the Prince 

in this place ! 

1 The "seat" or throne. 



A RAJPUT NURSE. ' 1 85 

Tliey have bought the help of the gate-guards, or 

slaughtered them unawares, 
Hark ! that is tlie noise of their tulwars,^ the clatter 

upon the stairs ! ' 

" For one breath she caught her baby from her lap to her 

heart, and let 
The King's child sink from her nipple, with lips still 

clinging and wet, 
Then tore from the Prince his head-cloth, and the putta 

of pearls from his waist, 
And bound the belt on her infant, and the cap on his 

brows, in haste ; 

"And laid her own dear offspring, her flesh and blood. 

on the floor. 
With the girdle of pearls around him, and the cap that 

the King's son wore ; 
While close to her heart, which was breaking, she folded 

the Eaja's joy, 
And — even as the murderers lifted the purdah- — she fled 

with his boy. 

1 Indian swords. 



1 86 OTHER POEMS. 

" But there ( so they deemed ) ia his jewels, lay the Chota 

Rana,i the Heir ; 
' The cow with two calves has escaped us/ cried one, ' it 

is right and fair 
She should save her own butcha ; ^ no matter ! the edge 

of the dagger ends 
This spark of Lord Eaghoba's sunlight ; stab thrice and 

four times, O friends ! ' 



" And the Rajput women will have it ( I know not if this 

can be so ) 
That M6ti's son in the putta and golden cap cooed low, 
When the sharp blades met in his small heart, with never 

one moan or wince, 
But died with a babe's light laughter, because he died 

for his Prince. 



" Thereby did that Rajput mother preserve the line of our 
Kings." 
" Oh ! Vittoo," I said, " but they gave her much gold and 
beautiful things. 



1 *' Little King." 2 « Little one." 



A RAJPUT NURSE. 1 8/ 

And garments, and land for her people, and a home in 

the Palace ! May be 
She had grown to love that Princeling even more than 

the child on her knee." 

" May it please the Presence ! " quoth Vittoo, " it seemeth 

not so ! they gave 
The gold and the garments and jewels, as much as the 

proudest would have ; 
But the same night deep in her true heart she buried a 

kniie, and smiled, 
Saying this : * I have saved my Pan a ! I must go to 

suckle my child ! ' " 



From the Persian: 
[Heard at a Nautch, in Bhaonagar Palace^ Nov. 1885.] 

" FACE of the tulip, and bosom 

Of the jasmine, whose Cypress are you ? 
Whose fate are you, cold-hearted Blossom ? — 

In the Garden of Grace, where you grew. 
The lily boasts no more her fragrance, 

And the rose hangs her head at your feet ; 
Ah ! whose is that mouth like the rose-bud, 

Making honey seem no longer sweet ? 

You pass, taking hearts ; you ensnare one 

Like wine ; and your eyes dart a light 
As of arrows. Whose are you, most fair one ! 

With brow like the crescent of night ? 
Have you come to make me, too, your victim ? 

So be it ! Ah, loveliest lip. 
Give now to this slave who adores you 

One drop from that death-cup to sip." 



€f)e ^nafte anti tfje 25aBp. 

" In sin conceived," you tell us, " condemned for the guilt 

of birth," 
From the moment when, lads and lasses, they come to this 

beautiful Earth ; 
And the rose-leaf hands, and the limpid eyes, and the 

blossom-mouths, learning to kiss 
Mean nothing, my good Lord Bishop ! which, any way, 

shakes you in this ? 

>». 
Well, I — I believe in babies I from the dawn of a day in 

spring 
When, under the neems, in my garden, I saw a notable 

thing. 
Long ago, in my Indian garden 'T was a morning of 

gold and gray, 
And the Sun — as you never see him — had melted the 

last stars away. 



1 90 OTHER POEMS, 

My Arab, before the house-door, stood stamping the 

gravel to go, 
All wild for our early gallop ; and you heard the caw of 

the crow, 
And the " nine little sisters " a-twitter in the thorn-bush ; 

and, farther away 
The coppersmith's stroke in the fig-tree, awaking the 

squirrels to play. 

My foot was raised to the stirrup, and the bridle gathered. 

What made 
Syce Gopal stare straight before him, with visage fixed 

and dismayed ? 
What made him whisper in terror ? " Shiva, the snake ! 

the snake ! " 
I looked where Gopal was gazing, and felt my own heart 

quake ! 

For there — in a patch of sunlight — where the path to the 

well went down, 
The year-old baby of Gopal, sat naked, and soft, and 

brown, 
His small right hand encircling a lota of brass, his left 
Close-cuddling a great black cobra, slow-creeping forth 

from a cleft ! 



THE SNAKE AND THE BABY. 191 

We held our breaths! The serpent drew clear its 

lingering tail 
As we gazed; you could see its dark folds and silvery 

belly trail 
Tinkling the baby's bangles, and climbing his thigh and 

his breast, 
As it glided beneath the fingers on those cold scales 

fearlessly pressed. 



He was crowing — that dauntless baby ! — while the lank 

black Terror squeezed. 
Its muzzle and throat 'twixt the small flank and arm of 

the boy ! Well pleased, 
He was hard at play with his serpent, pretending to guard 

the milk. 
And stroking that grewsome comrade with palms of nut 

brown silk ! 



Alone, untended, and helpless, he was cooing low to the 

snake ; 
Which coiled and clung about him, even more (as it 

seemed) for the sake 



192 OTHER POEMS. 

Of the touch of his velvety body, and the love of his 

laughing eyes, 
And the flowery clasx3 of his fingers, than to make the 

milk a prize. 



For, up to the boy's face mounting, we saw the cobra dip 
His wicked head in the lota, and drink with him, sip for 

sip; 
Whereat, with a chuckle, that baby pushed off the 

serpent's head. 
And — look ! — the red jaws opened, and the terrible hood 

was spread ! 



And Gopal muttered beside me " Saheby maro ! maro ! " ^ 

to see 
The forked tongue glance at the infant's neck, and the 

spectacled devilry 
Of the flat crest dancing and darting all round that 

innocent brow ; 
Yet it struck not; but, quietly closing its jaws and its 

hood, laid now 



1 ''Strike, sir! strike!" 



i 



77A£" SNAKE AND THE BABY. 193 

The horrible mottled murder of its mouth in the tender 

chink 
Of the baby's plump crossed thighlets ; while peacefully 

he did drink 
What breakfast-milk he wanted, then held the lota down 
For the snake to finish at leisure, plunged deep in it 

fang and crown. 

Three times, before they parted, my Syce would have 

sprung to the place, 
In fury to smite the serpent ; but I held him fast, for 

one pace 
Had been death to the boy ! I knew it ! and I whispered, 

" Gopal,*'wait ! 
Chooprao ! ^ he is wiser than we are ; he has never yet 

learned to hate ! " 

Then coil by coil, the cobra unwound its glistering bands, 
Sliding — all harmless and friendly — from under the baby's 

hands ; 
Who crowed, as his comrade left him, in year-old 

language to say 
" Good-by ! for this morning, Serpent ! come very soon 
back to play ! " 

1 "Be quiet!" 
13 



194 OTHER POEMS. • 

So, I thought, as I mounted " Wurdah," and galloped the 

Maidan thrice, 
" Millennium 's due to-morrow, by ' baby and cockatrice ' ! " 
And I never can now believe it, my Lord ! that we come 

to this Earth 
Keady-damned, with the seeds of evil sown qxdte so 

thick at our birth ! 



from a ^ifet) i^pmn. 

* 

" The beautiful blue of the Sky is the Guru of Man ; 

And his Father the Water white ; 
And his Mother the broad-browed Earth, with her 
bountiful span ; 
And the sweet-bosomed Night 
Is the black Nurse who lulls him to sleep, with the stars 
in her ears ; 
And the strong-striding Day 
Is the Hamal, with glittering turban and putta, who 
bears 
The children to play." 



A FAREWELL. IQS 

511 f atetoelL 

(From the French.') 

To four-score years my years have come ; 
At such an age to shuffle home 

Full time it seems to be : 
So now, without regret, I go, 
Gayly my packing-up I do ; 

Bonsoir, la Compagnie ! 

AVhen no more in this world I dwell 
Where I shall live I can't quite tell ; 

Dear God ! be that with Thee ! 
Thou wilt ordain nothing save right, 
Why should I feel then grief or fright ? 

Bonsoir, la Compagnie ! 

Of pleasant days I had my share ; 
For love and fame no more T care ; 

Good sooth, they weary me ! 
A gentleman, w^hen fit for nought. 
Takes leave politely, as he ought : 

Bonsoir, la Compagnie ! 



196 OTHER POEMS, 



% 3lobe::^^on0 of ]^cnri <©uatre* 

Come, rosy Day ! 

Come quick — I pray — 
I am so glad when I thee see ! 

Because my Fair, 

Who is so dear, 
Is rosy-red and white like thee. 

She lives, I think 

On heavenly drink 
Dawn-dew, which Hebe pours for her ; 

Else — when I sip 

At her soft lip 
How smells it of ambrosia ? 

She is so fair 

None can compare ; 
And, oh, her slender waist divine I 

Her sparkling eyes 

Set in the skies 
The morninor star would far outshine ! 



A LOVE-SONG OF HENRI QUATRE. 197 

Only to hear 

Her voice so clear 
The village gathers in the street ; 

And Tityriis, 

Grown one of us, 
Leaves piping on his flute so sweet. 

The Graces three, 

Where'er she be, 
Call all the Loves to flutter nigh ; 

And what she '11 say, — 

Speak when she may, — 
Is full of sense and majesty ! 



198 OTHER POEMS. 



from t^t J^an^teit SUntljoIosp* 

Ah, God ! I have not had Thee day and night 
In thought, nor magnified Thy name aright. 
Nor lauded Thee, nor glorified, nor laid 
Upon thine altars one poor kusa-blade ! 
Yet now, when I seek refuge. Lord ! with Thee 
I ask, and Thou wilt give all good to me ! 



I am of sinfulness and sorrows full ! 
Thou art the Mighty, Great, and Merciful ! 
How should we not be friends, or Thou not save 
Me who bring nought to Thee Who all things gave ? 



BASTI SINGH'S WIFE. 199 



{A Bihari Mill Song.) 

I. 

Basti Singh's wife, shredding betel — betel-leaf, and cloves, 
and spices — 
Mixed a savory mess, and made it rich and fragrant ; 
— HuEiJi ! 
Husking paddy, husking sathi,^ boiled and strained the 
steaming rices, 
Poured the dall and conjee on it: so, 'tis ready! — 
HuRiJi ! 

2. 

" Mother-in-law I beside me sitting, is it fitting 2 if I 
carry 
To my husband's elder brother food to eat now ? " — 
HUPJJI ! 

1 ^' Sixty-day rice." 

2 A Hindoo wife may converse unveiled and freely with the 
younger brothers of her husband, but not with the elder brothers. 



200 OTHER POEMS. 

" Daugliter-in-lavv ! fold close thy sari over face and 
neck, nor tarry ; 
Bare thy hands alone in serving Basti's brother." — 

HURIJI I 

3. 

Sitting down to eat, he marked her, Basti's brother 
marked her beauty, 
Evil eyes from feet to forehead wandering, pondering, 
— HuRiJi! 
" Elder brother of my husband ! I have surely failed of 
duty; 
Too much salt unto the conjee have I added?" — 
HuRiJi ! 

4. 

'' Too much salt thou hast not added, fair wife of my 
younger brother ! 
Nor in aught hast failed of duty, thou with dove's 
eyes ! " — Huriji ! 

At the dawn they beat the big drums — " Ho ! let all the 
people gather, 
Small and great, to see the hunting of the sleek 
deer " — Huriji ! 



BASTI SINGH'S WIFE. 201 

5- 
Deer they killed, and hares, and peacocks, shooting hard 
with arrows sharpened, 

Basti's brother pierced his brother with an arrow; 

HuRiJi ! 

"Mother-in-law, beside me seated, what calamity hath 
happened ? 
See ! the spangle ^ on my forehead to the earth falls ! " 

— HuRiJi ! 

6. 
" Daiighter-in-law ! say no such evil ! speak no word of 
ill-betiding ! 
Basti Singh has gone a-hunting ; have thou patience I " 

— HuRiJi ! 

Hark! the tramping, and the champing! all the riders 
homewards riding: ! 
Only Basti's horse returning riderless, ah ! — Hupjji ! 

7- 
Look! the bright' swords in each scabbard! Look! the 
arrows in each quiver ! 

1 The tikuli, a spot of red, white, or yellow paint placed on the 
forehead. It is a very bad omen to have it come oflF. 



202 OTHER POEMS. 

Only Basti's sword and quiver soaked with black 
blood ! — HuEiJi ! 

At the first watch, comes in darkness to her hut-door 
by the river 
Easti's elder brother knocking, softly knocking: — 
HuRiJi ! 

8. 

" If you be a jackal prowling, if you be a dog at pillage, 
If you be the village people, get you hence now ! " — 
HuEiJi ! 
" Nay, no dog or jackal am I ; nor the people of the 
village ; 
I am Basti Singh the Fvajpoot ; fair wife open ! " — 
HuEiJi ! 

9- 

" Liar ! that is not my Lord's voice ! Thou hast slain 
him ! Quick ! confess it 1 
Where, thou liar? how, thou liar? by what tree, 
now ? " — Humji ! 
•■' Yes ! I slew him in the jungle — for thy sweet love, I 
profess it ! 
Underneath a twisted sandal lies his body ! " — HURIJI ! 



BASTI SINGH'S WIFE. 203 

10. 

" Show me ! " " Nay ! " lie said, " but only, Basti's 
widow! if thou swearest 
Thou wilt keep his bed-place for me at thy soft side " 

— HURIJI 

" Oh, my husband's elder brother ! if his death-place 
thou declarest, 
This I swear, none else shall have it — show me ! 
show me I " — HURUI ! 

II. 

All beneath the eyes of midnight, under peepul trees 
which listen, 
Over plain, and down the nullah, through the river, — 
HuRiJi ! 
On the road with horse-hoofs dinted, by the paths where 
blood-drops glisten. 
To the twisted tree he led her : " Look ! thy Hus- 
band I " — HuRiJi ! 

12. 

" Oh, my husband's elder brother ! oh, thou Slayer ! oh, 
thou Liar ! 



204 OTHER POEMS. 

Fetcli me flame, the while I build the pile for 

burning : " — HuEUi ! 
" Swear, once more, none else shall have you, if I go to 

fetch you fire." 
" Yea ! I swear ! " said Basti's widow, building, building 

— HuRiJi ! 

13- 

Hasten ! hasten ! Basti's brother ! She hath laid him, 
bold and lonely. 
On the dry wood ! She hath mounted ! From her 
breast-cloth, — Htjriji ! 
She hath drawn hid fire and set it. Haste not ! there 
are ashes only 
Left of Basti Singh the Eajpoot, and his true wife — 
HuEiJi ! 

But all the tears of all the eyes 

Find room in Gunga's led : 
And all the sorrow is gone to-morrow 

When the scarlet flames have fed. 



IN MEMORY OF S. S. 205 

5^n a^miorp of ^. ^., 

^TAT. 21, 

(ff7io ryas accidentally drowned, in Loch Maree, Scotland, on the 
29th of August, 1887.) 

Too dear to die ! too sweet to live, and bear 

The griefs which burden all our being here ! 

Too precious to give up, could Love but stay 

The stroke of Fate, and parting pangs delay ! 

Yet take her — since 't is willed — Angels of Heav'n 1 

Your Sister- Angel ; her so briefly given 

To grace and gladden Earth. Ah, wild Scotch Lake ! 

We will not curse thee, for her gentle sake ; 

Ah ! cruel Water-Nymphs I who drew her in. 

We half forgive, she was so fair to win ! 

Ah, Eocks and Eowan-trees, who saw her die. 

And could not save her ! we shall, by and by, 

Know the hard secret of a woe like this. 

And see — clear-eyed — how Sorrow brings to Bliss. 

To-day there comes no comfort ! None ! We wave 

Weak hands towards that gloom beyond the grave ; 



206 OTHER POEMS. 

We speed vain messages of tender thought 
To that new-vanished Spirit ; who saith naught ! 
Still, she must know ! must hear ! must yearn to say 
All 's well with her ; that Love and Death, alway, 
Are friends ; and last pains light, and swift to heal ; 
And the Loch's winding-sheet not cold to feel ! 
She speaks ! with higher life made glad and full ; 
Our ears for Angels' whispers are too dull ! 
Have, then, thy early peace, Sophie ! and we — 
By this trust lightened — Love's blind agony. 



(gpxtapf) toritten far tl)e ^ame* 

Dear Maid ! the waters, closing o'er thy head. 
Snatched thee from Earth, but opened Heaven, instead. 
Sadly we give thee back to God That gave. 
In this faith firm — that He, who walked the wave. 
Held thy Soul up, when thy sweet Body sank ; 
And led thee, loving, to the Blissful Bank. 
Pray for us, new-made Angel ! — now, that we 
Sink not beneath the waves of Sorrow's Sea. 



FROM THE SANSKRIT. 



FROM THE SANSKRIT, 



45ri^{)ma, or tl^c ^ca^on of 1$taU 

[From the Eitu Sanhdra of Kdliddsa.'] 

With fierce noons beaming, moons of glory gleaming. 
Full conduits streaming, where fair bathers lie ; 

With sunsets splendid, when the strong Day, ended. 
Melts into languor, like a lover's sigh — 
So Cometh Summer nigh. 

And shadows black as night, laced with gold light 

AVhere beams, flame-bright, pierce courts of calm retreat ; 

Wan rills which warble over glistening marble ; 
Cold jewels, and red sandal, moist and sweet, 
These for the time are meet 

Of Suchi springing ; of the glad days bringing 

Love-songs for singing which all hearts enthrall ; 
Wine-foam that hovers at the lips of lovers, 
Perfumes and pleasures in the Palace-Hall : 
In Suchi these befall. 
14 



2 1 FROM THE SA NSKRIT. 

For then, their hips loose-cinctured, bosoms tinctured 
AVith dust of neem-spray, and with pearl-strings gay ; 

Their new-laved hair unbound, and spreading round 
Taint scents, the Palace-maids in tender play 
The ardent hearts allay 

Of princely playmates. Through the painted gates 
Their feet, with lac-dye neat, and anklets ringing, 

In music trip along, echoing the song 

Of wild swans — all men's souls by subtle singing 
To Kama's service bringing : 

For who, their softly-heaving breasts perceiving, 

Their white pearls — weaving with the emerald stars 

Girdles and anadems — their gold and gems 

Linked upon waist and thigh, in Love's soft snares 
Is not caught unawares ? 

Their silk cloths laid aside, cholis thrown wide 
In the warm night-tide — they their beauty cover 

With woven veil too airy to conceal 

Its dew-pearled smoothness : so, with youth clad over 
^ Each finds her ea^jer lover. 



GRISHMA; OR, THE SEASON OF HEAT. 21 

And breathings tender from the fans of ehanda, 
Odors that wander from those gem-bound breasts, 

Voices of stream and bird, and low notes heard 
From sitar-strings amid the song's unrests, 
Wake passion ; with light jests 

And side-long glances, and slow-moving dances 
Each maid enhances newly-stirred delight; 

Quick leaps the fire of love's divine desire 
So kindled in the season when the Night 
With whitest stars is dight ; 

Till, on the silvered terraces, the faces 
Love's slumber graces, lip to fond lip lie ; 

And — all for sorrow there must come To-morrow — 
The moon, who watches them, pales in the sky, 
While the still Night' doth die. 



Then breaks red dawn ! The whirling dust is driven 
O'er earth and heaven, until the sun-scorched plain 

A road scarce shows, for dazzling heat to those 
Who, far from home and friends, journey in pain 
Longing to rest again. 



212 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

In troops returning, with muzzles dry and burning 
For cool streams yearning, herds of antelope 

Haste where the brassy sky, banked black and high, 
Gives clouded promise. There will be — they hope, 
Water beyond the Tope ! 

In full glare failing, his hooded terrors veiling, 
His slow coils trailing o'er the fiery dust. 

The cobra glides to nighest shade, and hides 
His head beneath the peacock's train : he must 
His direst foeman trust ! 



Pea-fowls forlorn, o'ermastered and o'erborne 
By blaze of morn cower down with weary cries, 

No stroke they make to slay the gliding snake 
Who creeps for shelter underneath the eyes 
Of their spread jewelries ! 

The tiger scowling — that kingly tyrant, prowling. 
For sore thirst howling, orbs a-stare and red, 

Sees without fear the elephants pass near. 

Lolls his lank tongue and hangs his bloody head, 
His mighty forces fled. 



'GRISHMA; OR, THE SEASON OF HEAT. 213 

Nor heed the elephants the tiger, phicking 

Dry leaves, and suckmg with their hot trunks dew, 

By heat tormented still they trumpet shrill, 

And, nowhere finding water, still renew 

Their search — a wof ul crew ! 

With restless snout rooting their rank food out. 
Where, all about the slime, thick grasses grow. 

The gray boars, grunting in dire ill-contenting, 
Dig lairs to shield them from the torturing glow, 
Deep — deep as they can go. 

The frog, for misery of his pool, drawn dry 

'Neath that flame-darting sky, and waters drained 

Down to their clay — crawls croaking forth to stay 
Against the black-snake's coils, where there is gained 
A little shade; and, strained 

To patience by the rays which flicker and blaze 
From the scorched jewel on his venomous head, 

That worm whose tongue — as the blast burns along — 
Licks it for coolness, all discomfited 
Strikes not his new friend dead ! 



214 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

The pool, once showing 'mid the green leaves growing, 
Blue Lotus blowing, hath no blossoms more ! 

Its fish are dead ; its fearful cranes are fled ; 
And crowding cattle all its flowery shore 
Tramp to a miry floor. 

With foam-strings roping down his jowl, and dropping 
From drawn, dried lips ; horns laid aback, and eyes 

Mad with the drouth, and thirst-distracted mouth. 
Fierce-thundering from the mountain cavern flies 
The bison, in wild wise. 

Questing some water-channel. Bare and scrannel 
The palms droop where the crows sit in a row 

With beaks agape. The gray baboon and ape 
Climb chattering to the bush. The buffalo 
Bellows. The locusts go 

Choking the wells. Far over hills and dells 
Eoams the affrighted eye, beholding blasted 

The pleasant grass, the forests' leafy mass 

Withered, its glory waned, its grace exhausted, 
Its creatures wasted. 



GRISHMA; OR, THE SEA SO A' OF HEAT. 21 5 

Then springs to view, blood-red and fierce of hue, 
As blooms sprung new on the kusumbha-tree, 

The wood-fire's tongue, fanned by the winds, and flung 
Furiously forth — thorns, canes and brakes you see 
Wrapped in one agony, 

By ruin riven ! The conflagration driven 
Tn crimson levin, roars from jungle dells. 

Hisses and blusters through the bamboo clusters. 
Crackles across the curling reeds, compels 
All that in woodland dwells 

Headlong to fly ! Dreadful those flames to espy 
Coil from the cotton-tree, snakes of hot gold, 

Violently break from root and trunk to take 
The seething leaves and boughs in deadly hold ; 
Then passing, to enfold 

New plunder: beasts and birds, a sight of wonder. 
Through the smoke thunder — all their enmity 

Lain quite aside ; seeking the river wide 
Which flows by sandy flats ; in company 
As friends, they madly flee ! 



2l6 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

But thee, my Best-Beloved ! may ^iiclii visit fair 
With songs of secret waters cooling the quiet air ; 
Under blue beds of lotus-buds, and patalas which shed 
Beauty and balm, while Moon-time weaves over thy 

happy head 
Its silvery veil So nights and days of Summer glide 

for thee 
Amid the Pleasure-palaces, with love and melody ! 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 21/ 

From the Virdta Parva of the Mahdhhdrata. 

[This indubitably genuine portion of the great Hindoo Epic 
possesses special interest by reason of its spirited narrative, and 
also of the light which it casts upon ancient Indian life and 
manners. The five Pandu Princes, with their Queen-Consort, 
Draupadi, have quitted the Forest, in which they had passed 
twelve years of exile, to dwell in disguise at the court of King 
Virata of the Matsyas. The subjoined version follows closely 
the Sanskrit text, but omits several detached passages and lines, 
for the sake of condensation.] 

Spake Janmejaya : I am fain to hear 
How fared my lordly forefathers disguised 
In King Virata's city. Did they 'scape 
Duryodhana, and undiscovered dwell ? 
Also, thou Brahmana ! Queen Draupadi — 
Stricken with so much ill, so true to vows, 
Dear to all Gods, delightful, — prospered she? 

Quoth Vaisampuyana : Hear, Chief of Men ! 
How thy proud forefathers sojourned unmarked. 
In King Virata's town. That son of Heaven, 
Prince Yudhisthira, of the righteous soul, 



2l8 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Summoned his brothers, and spake thus to them : 
" Twelve rain-times have we spent banished from home, 
The thirteenth — hard to pass, is come ! Choose now 
Some place for us — Arjuna, Kunti's son ! — 
Where we may dwell, unknown by enemies." 

Arjuna answered : " Dharma's help will keep 
Our ways concealed, thou King of men ! But I 
Will tell thee of fair spots, pleasant and good, 
Take which thou may'st. Eound our forbidden realm 
Stretch Chedi, and Panchala ; Matsya, 
Pattachahara, Dusarna, Surasen, 
ISTaorashtra, Salva, Malla, Avanti, 
Yugandhara, Surashtra, and the plains 
' Of Kuntirashtra. Which,*then, choosest thou 
Prince of all Princes ! for this troublous year ? " 

And Yudhisthira said : " Oh, mighty-armed ! 
Thou speakest sooth ; it will be as -He wills 
The Lord of Justice. Let us seek forthwith 
One of those lands, quiet, auspicious, fair, 
And trustful sojourn there. Matsya's Chief, 
The old Virata hath a virtuous name ; 
Kindly and strong he is ; dear to all men ; 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 2ig 

And lovetli furthermore our Pandavas. 
Let us o'ertide tliis year in Matsya 
With King Virata. Say then, Kuru Lords ! 
In what guise think ye to present yourselves 
For service at the Court ? " 

Answered Arjun : 
" Speak first, thou First of men ! To what low task 
Can'st thou bow down ? Lofty, and true, and mild 
How wilt thou face the griefs which threaten thee ? 
How beai such burden of indignities ? " 

But Yudhisthira gave reply : " Hear now, 
What I will do at King Virata's Court, 
Plight lordly brothers ! giving forth myself 
A Brahman, known as Kanka, skilled in dice, 
Cunning to play at games, I sliall become 
The King's attendant : I shall deftly move 
Men cut in tusk of elephant, and stained 
Blue, yellow, white and red, on checkered cloths, 
By cast of double black and scarlet dice, 
Beguiling royal hours. Nor so employed, 
Will the King know me. But if he should ask 
* Whence and what art thou ? ' I shall answer thus. 



220 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

'■ I was Prince Yudhisthira's closest friend.' 

So in Virata, purpose I to live ; 

And thou, my Bhima ! in what office thou ? " 



Quoth Bhima : " As a Cook will I appear 
At King Virata's Court. My name shall be 
Vallava : I am skilled in kitchen craft ; 
I will dress dishes. Prince ! as none before 
Have dieted this Lord. Great loads of wood 
My brawny back shall carry, him to serve ; 
And, seeing my tireless strength the palace-folk 
Will entertain me friendly, and my hand 
Will be set over all the meats and drinks. 
Also, if it be ordered that I fight 
Pierce bulls and fiery elephants, these arms 
Shall vanquish them ; and if they match with me 
Wrestlers and boxers I shall meet them all 
And lay them low, to make Virata sport ; 
■ Yet so as not to slay — if that may be. 
Purther, if any ask, ' Whence comest thou ? ' 
Or ' Who art thou ? ' I shall this answer give : 
' Of late I was the wrestler and the cook 
To Yudhisthira.' Thus I purpose, Prince ! " 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 221 

Then Yudhisthira said : " And, what shall be 
The office of our Kuru Lord, our pride ; 
The long-armed, fearless, firm, unconquerable, 
Kunti's dear son, whom once Agni himself 
Encountered, when he came, as Brahmana, 
To burn Khandava wood ? What humble chare 
Will Arjun take, foremost of warriors ? 
How stands thy mind herein, great Brother ! say, 
Himavat of all Hills ! Ocean 'mid lakes ! 
Sakra of Gods ! of Yasus flaming Fire ! 
In the woods Ticker ! in the skies Garud ! " 

Pteplied Arjun : " Excellent Prince : my mind 

Is to declare myself a Shandaka, 

An Eunuch. True, I know it w411 be hard 

To hide the string-marks here ; but I shall wear 

Bangles upon my arms ; rings in my ears ; 

Shell-circlets on my wrists, and twine my locks 

Into a hanging braid. Thus shall I seem 

A sexless thing ; by name Vrihannala ; 

And living so, as Shanda, I shall charm 

The King and palace-inmates with my arts. 

Teaching his women how to sing, and dance 

Delicate measures ; and delightful airs 



222 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

To play them on the various mstruments. 
Also the ways of courts I shall recount, 
And lover's tricks, making much pleasantry, 
Myself, meanwhile, dissembling unfler these. 
And, Bharata ! if the King think to ask 
I '11 say : ' I lived Draupadi's drum-beater 
In Yudhisthira's house.' So, keeping close 
As fire is hid by ashes, I shall pass 
Good days, dear Prince ! at King Virata's Court." 

Then Yudhisthira asked : " My Nakula ! — 
Handsome, and gifted with all grace, and born 
For lofty life and ease, — what menial toil 
Will thou sustain in the King's vassalry ?" 

Nakula made answer : " Brother ! I will be 

Virata's horse-keeper, named Granthika, 

I know that work : I have an art to train 

The untaught colts, breaking and backing them, 

For horses unto me, as unto thee. 

Were ever dear, Excellent Chief ! And when 

Men question in Virata's land, I '11 say : 

* I kept the horses of Prince Yudhisthir I ' 

Thus shall I dwell at peace, friendly with all, 

And none will know that I am Nakula ! " 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 223 

Next Yudhisthira said : " Thou, Saliadev ! 
How wilt thou hear thyself before the King ? 
In what way wilt thou pass these days, disguised ? " 

Sahadev made reply : " I will become 
A herdsman of his cattle, skilled to milk, 
And fold, and tell the kine. This task I '11 take 
As Tantripal the Cow-herd. Banish doubt 
Prince I from thy mind. Ever, in days gone by 
I fared with oxen, and I know them well, 
Their ways and natures, all their lucky marks, 
And which is good or bad, and how to choose 
Bulls of right shape and color, bulls of blood 
Whose very sniff makes barren heifers breed. 
Brother ! that work I know, and I shall live 
Unrecognized, and favored by the King." 

Anew spake Yudhisthira : " Still remains 
This our dear Queen, dearer than realm or life ; 
So to be cherished as a mother is, 
Or elder sister. Yet what knoweth she 
Of any woman's labor ; what safe place 
Can Draupadi — can gentle Krishna find ? 
Tender and youthful, and a high Princess, 



224 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Softly her years have flowed hereto, as soft 
As she is pure and faithful. Now, alas ! 
How wilt thou dw^ell, dear Draupadi ! whose life 
Was glad with garlands, fragrant with fine airs, 
Dainty with gems and flowers, and golden cloths 



?» 



Draupadi answered : " Nay ! there go in towns 
The women called Sairindhris, waiting-girls, 
Who enter household service - — elsewhere shunned. 
I will give forth I am Sairindhri, Prince ! 
Skilled to dress hair ; and I shall say I dwelled 
Draupadi's waiting woman in past days 
At Yudhisthira's Palace. Thus concealed 
Safe shall I serve the well-reputed Queen 
Sudeshna. She will favor me, be sure ! 
Have ye no care for me ! " 

And the Prince said, 
" Well hast thou spoken. Yet herein, dear Queen, 
Bethink thee, always, of thy line and house 1 
Guarded and vowed, hereto, thou knowest not wrong. 
Therefore, so bear thyself that evil eyes 
May take no profit, if they turn on thee." 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 225 

And Vaisampayana went on : — These Five 
Buckling their swords, and binding round their arms 
String-guards of lizard-skin, with quivers charged. 
Put forth, setting their faces for the shores 
Of the Kalindi stream. Heretofore lodged 
In trackless brakes, on pathless mountain-peaks, 
Now was their forest sojourn finished ; now 
The hope drew nigh to win their lands again. 
So to the southern bank they came, each chief 
Lusty with woodland-life and hunter's fare ; 
So passed they Yakilloma, Surasen ; 
And left behind Panchala to the right, 
Dasarna to the left ; and quitting then 
The jungle country, entered Matsya, 
Sworded and bearded, wayworn, wearing guise 
Of stalwart woodmen. 

Eeaching trodden ground 
Draupadi spake : "Look! there be footpaths here. 
And fields fenced in : yet distant seems the town 
Of King Virata. Halt we now till dawn ; 
Great is my weariness ! " 

Qiioth Yudhisthir : 
" Arjuna ! Best of Bowmen ! take her up ! 

15 



226 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Carry sweet Krishna ! Where the thickets cease 
We see Virata's city." 

Then Arjun, 
With thews as of bull elephant, took up 
Sweet Draupadi ; and bore her till they saw 
The far town-walls. Hereupon Kunti's Son 
Spake, saying : " In what place shall we conceal 
Our weapons ere we enter ? Bearing them 
Our mien must fright the townsmen : nay, no doubt, 
Gandiva, this prodigious bow, is known ; 
But if we be discovered — even one — 
Then stand we pledged to tarry twelve years more 
Within the forest ! " 

And Arjuna said ; 
" Hard by yon burning-ground, below that crag 
Kising so steep to climb — a Sami-tree 
Spreads its wide branches. None will note, meseems, 
If we should hide our arms on 't. See ! it grows 
Close to the death-yard, in a dreary waste 
Haunted by wolves and snakes. Let us conceal 
Our weapons so ; and afterwards pass free 
Into the city." 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 227 

This agreed, Arjun — 
Thither repairing with the princely band — 
Slipped from its notch Gandiva's string — that string 
Which, drawn in war, sang with a thunderous song. 
Destroying hosts, subduing with swift shafts 
Nagas, and Gods, and men and provinces ; 
And Yudhisthira slacked th' unfailing cord 
Of that dread bow which routed hostile ranks 
At Kurukshetra. Bhima next uns^ung 
The weapon that Panchala's throne o'erthrew — 
Which, singly fighting, broke a host of foes, 
Eesounding like the roaring of a storm 
When mountains cleave — awful to enemies. 
Uncorded too his bow fair Nakula, 
The comely light-hued Lord named for liis grace. 
Soft spoken, mild, yet fearful in the field, 
Nakula those notched horns loosed, which theretofore 
Conquered the west. And the twin Sahadev 
Freed his, which won the countries of the South. 
Then, with their bows, laid they aside their swords : 
Long, glittering ; and their arrows sharp as knives, 
And jewelled quivers. Nakula, climbing up. 
Bestowed all these in strong and hollow forks 
Safe from the rain. Also the heroes hung 



228 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

A body in the boughs ; " for so," said they, 

" The people, smelling winds of death, and seeing 

The corpse, will cry : ' Avoid yon Sami-tree ! ' " 

But certain cattle-herders — passing — asked 
" Why hang ye thus a corpse upon the tree ? " 
Answered the Pandavas : " Our mother 't is : 
Nine score years old at death ! We hang her there 
Because it is the custom of our race ! " 

So did those Five draw nigh the City-Gates ! 

But Yudhisthira — ere he reached the walls 
Entering that pleasant city — silently 
Lifted his heart to call on Durga's help, 
Queen Durga of three worlds. Giver of good, 
Enhancer of the household, Kansa's dread. 
Destroyer of the Demons, in bright wreaths 
Ever arrayed, ever in rich robes dressed ; 
The Goddess with the buckler and the blade. 
Who ransoms those that love her, though they be 
Sunk in their sins, as is a cow in mire — 
Protectress strong, and succorer of men. 
Delivering them from evil. So, that Prince 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 229 

For liim, and for his Five invoking her, 

Thus named her holy names in whispered hymn : 



" Glory to Thee ! Durga of beauteous brow ! 

The Many-faced and Many-handed ! Thou 

That hast the dark limbs and deep bosoms ! Now 

Listen to us, and aid ! 
Goddess ! whose anklets shine with lightnings thrown 
From burning blue of dazzling sapphire-stone, 
And dancing green of emerald. Devi known 

As Everlasting Maid ! 

" Thou, who dost bear the cup and lily flower. 
The bell, the noose, the bow, the disk of power. 
Thy never-failing weapons. In this hour 

Be present. Virgin Queen ! 
Thou with the shell-shaped ears — open to prayer — 
Where swing the glittering rings ! Thou who dost wear 
The diadem of glory, and long hair 

Bound in a braid of sheen ! 

" Moon-eyed ! with the garment rimmed by snakes 
Whose skin enamelled dappled brilliance makes — 



230 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

O golden-girdled Lady ! for our sakes, 

Durga ! send benison ! 
Thou with the serpents green and gold, which bind 
Thy broad hips in, as flickering forests wind 
Eound Mandara ! be of propitious mind, 
Great Lion-riding One ! 

" Give grace ! Be favorable 1 Succor now, 

For Thou art Jay a, and Vijaya Thou ! 

And Victory sits on Thy plume-circled brow 

Vindhya's dread denizen ! 
Kali ! strong Kali ! fed with meat and wine. 
And fat smoke of the sacrifice divine, 
Whom all Gods follow, when the will is Thine 

To scatter gifts to men : 

" To Thee men cry whom robber-bands assail ; 
Who cross swift streams, or drive before the gale ; 
Who toil in jungles ; or in deserts fail ; 

Thou art their Name of Might ! 
And Thee rememb'ring none is all undone ; 
Thou dost regard and rescue every one, 
High Mahadevi ! Thou art Moon and Sun, 

Comfort, and Peace, and Light ! 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 231 

" Thus I, a Prince without his kingdom, bow, 
Claiming Thy aid and favor, Goddess ! now ; 
Laying — oh, Lotus-eyed — a humbled brow 

Before Thee — in the dust : 
As Thou art Durga — to Thy votaries kind, 
Be true to those that keep a faithful mind : 
Let us to-day Thy grace and favor find 

Who in Thee put our trust I " 

Praised so by Pandu's son, Durga appeared 
And spake : " Behold me, long-armed Prince ! my grace 
Is granted thee ! Thou wilt o'ercome ! Thy foes 
Shall fail before thee, and these Eealms be thine. 
And all thy paths go thornless — yea, and now 
They shall not know thee 'midst these Matsyas, 
Because thou didst invoke me, worshipping me ! " 

Therewith she vanished from his wondering eyes. 

Then, tying in his cloth the golden dice 
Set with blue numbers, and concealing them 
Under his arm-pit, Yudhisthira passed 
Into Virata's Gate : whom the old King 
Witnessed approaching, like a cloud-wrapped moon 
Cleaving the sky ; and to his counsellors 



232 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Spake : " Seek ye who this is, noble of port, 
Pacing so proudly, royal — having none 
To herald him, no slave, no chariot — 
And yet the air of Indra ! Fearlessly 
He wendeth, like an elephant in rut 
Trampling the lotuses." 

Thereat the Prince 
Standing before Virata, of himself 
Thus answered : " Know me, King ! a Brahmana, 
Who, lacking means to live, craves it of thee ; 
Thy service would I take ! " 

Well pleased that Lord 
Eeplied : " We welcome thee ! have what thou seek'st. 
But say whence comest thou ? what is thy name ? 
Thy family ? and what skill vauntest thou ? " 

" Kanka I am ; skilled in the play of dice," 
The Prince said : " born in the Vaiyaghra house, 
A friend of Yudhisthira in old days ! " 

At this Virata spake : " Be my will heard ! 
Where I am master thou art man : thy friends 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 233 

Are mine ; and my foes thine. Here shalt thou find 
Glad entertainment, with full meat and drink, 
And all my doors shall open stand for thee ! " 

So Yudhisthira entered in the Court. 

Came presently another towards the King ; 
Lion-like — vast of bone — whose right hand held 
A cooking-bowl, his left an unsheathed sword 
Of stainless sheen. And seeing him draw near 
The Matsya king spake unto those around : 
" Whence is this mighty man, this Bull of men, 
Broad-naped, and comely, like to Surya — 
Like to Purandara's great self ! Learn ye ! " 
But Bhima, close approaching, with fair words 
Addressed Virata, saying, " Lord of Lords ! 
I am a cook, named Yallava, deep-taught 
In seasoning curious dishes, and I seek 
Thy service ! " 

" Thou a Cook ! " Virata cried, 
" Who hast the bearing of the Thousand-Eyed ! 
And strength majestic, like a king uncrowned ? " 

" Yea, Lord ! a Cook," quoth Bhima, " and of old 



234 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Prince Yudhisthira praised the meats I dressed ! 
Moreover, I can wrestle. Chief of Earth ! 
And show thee sport, fighting with elephants 
Or lions, since no man hath thews like mine." 

Then said the King : " Be it as thou dost ask ! 
I make thee Master of my kitchen-gear ! " 

So entered Bhima in Virata's Court. 

Next, through the city-gates stepped Draupadi, 
Her long black glossy hair, braided and tied, 
Eolled on the right side of her neck, lay hid 
Beneath a cloth, and the Queen's cloth was dark. 
Costly, but frayed. The deer-eyed Draupadi — 
Bright-smiling Draupadi — paced here and there - 
Dressed as Sairindhris be, mournful of mien : 
Whom, so beholding, men and women stayed. 
Inquiring, "Who art thou — what seekest thou ? " 
Whereto she said : " A king's Sairindhri I, 
Seeking such service as may find me food ! " 
, But, looking on her beauty and her pride, 
None might believe. 

Presently, it befell 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 235 

The Queen Sudeshna from her Palace roof 
Spied the fair Lady thus forlorn and wrapped 
In one poor cloth ; and — calling — questioned her, 
Saying, " Who art thou, and what seekest thou, 
Beautiful stranger ? " Answered Draupadi : 
" A king's Sairindhri I, w^ho service ask ! " 
" But," quoth Sudeshna : " can it be such grace 
Adorns a serving-maid ? thou rather seem'st 
Mistress of many servants ! Anklets trim ! 
Limbs nobly moulded ! feet, hands, body formed 
In fairest wise ! Thy palms and soles dyed red 
With mehndi, and thy speech svfeet as swan's note ! 
And lustrous silken hair ! and shapely breasts, 
Long neck, sloped shoulders, graceful globing hips ! 
Nay ! like a Kashmir mare with all good marks 
Thou hast sure signs of blood — eye-lashes curved ! 
Lips like red buds — waist taper, soft throat lined 
As is a conch shell — veins scarce seen — a face 
Like the full moon — eyes cut like lotus-leaves. 
And thou thyself fragrant as lotus is ! 
Tell me in truth — art thou some Goddess hid — 
Yakhshi, or Gandharvi, or Apsara — 
A Naga Princess, or a Kinnari — 
Eohini's self, perchance ! which one of these ? " 



236 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Spake Draupadi : " None of all these am I 

No Goddess, Gandliarvi, or Eakhshasi ; 

But only a Sairindhri girl, who knows 

To comb and braid the hair, pestle sweet gums 

For scents and unguents, and fair garlands weave 

Of lilies blue or red and champak blooms. 

Of old Queen Satyanami I did serve. 

And Draupadi, wife of the Pandavas : 

Malini she would call me — ' wreath maker.' 

Now roam I, having need of food and home, 

And where I find them will I gladly bide ! " 



Sudeshna said, " Thou should'st live nearest me, 
Fair wanderer ! saving that I fear thy grace 
Would draw the King's heart wholly after thee ! 
See how my women eye thee as thou goest ! — 
What would men do ? I think our Palace trees 
Wave worship as thou passest ! Surely then. 
Too faultless girl, Virata's mind will turn 
Away from me, and wholly unto thee ! 
Ah ! eyes so large and lustrous ! him they woo 
Must helplessly take fire ! If I, the Queen, 
Did house thee, should I not destroy myself. 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 237 

As when the foolish crab conceiving dies, 

Or one who cHmbs a tree falls headlong thence ? " 

Draupadi answered : " iSToble Lady ! none 

Will do me wrong, or thee ! JMy spouses five 

Are Gandharvas, Heav'n's sons. Their unseen strensjth 

Always protects me ; he, who sought my love 

Dishonestly, would perish that same day ; 

Fear nothing from my beauty, gracious Queen ! " 

Sudeshna spake : " Bright one ! if this be true 
I take thee to my household, promising 
Thou shalt not wash another's feet, nor eat 
The leavings of another." 

So she passed 
Into the Palace, and none knew her name. 

Then Sahadev, habited like to those 
Who tend the cattle, speaking as such speak, 
Came to the cow-pens of the King. Him, too. 
Wondering to see such stature and such strength, 
Virata summoned, questioning. The Prince, 
With deep voice, thus replied : " A Vaisya I, 
Arishtaemi named ; a cowherd once 



238 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

In service of the Pandavas ; but now 
I wist not where they roam, those Lion Lords ; 
Yet service must I find, and if thou wilt, 
Great King, with thee ! " 

" Thou hast no cowherd's air," 
Virata said ; " a ruler might'st thou be 
Of Ocean-girdled earth ; a Harvester 
Of foes on the red battle-field. Speak, sooth ! 
From whose land comest thou ? What followest thou ? 
What office dost thou seek, and for what gage ? " 

Quoth Sahadev, " Prince Yudhisthira owned 
Lakhs of fair kine, and I was Cow-master. 
I knew the breed and points of all which grazed 
Within ten yojanas. The Prince himself 
Would praise my craft, since none was skilful ler 
To match the cows and bulls, and multiply 
The herds, and keep murrain and plague away. 
I know which beasts bear the auspicious marks, 
Which lordly sires, almost by sight and smell 
Will make the barren heifers fall with calf." 

Virata answered. " Henceforth shalt thou be 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 239 

Our Cowherd. All my hundred thousand kine 
I put into thy charge." 

So Sahadev 
Entered the Eoyal household, and none knew. 

Next day another stalwart stranger strode 

Within the Gates ; comely to view and strong, 

But decked in female ornaments. He wore 

Long ear-rings, and shell armlets laid with gold. 

His dark hair flowing down his neck. Thus hid 

Virata spied Arjun, and bade inquire 

" Whence is that man ? " and when he nearer drew 

Spake this : " Art thou an Eunuch ? — thou so Ihnbed 

Like to a bull of elephants, thou framed 

To ride on war-cars, wielding bow and spear ? " 

Arjuna said : " An Eunuch am I, King ! 
Ask not to such sad state how I did fall. 
I sing and dance, and play the bansuli, 
Vina and drum. Make me thy slave to teach 
Sweet music to the women in thy house. 
I am Vrihannala, the sexless one, 
Daughter of no man, and of no man son 1 " 



240 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

And when the King was made content, he sent 
That Pandu Prince — in women's garb disguised, 
Playing his pipe, and singing dancing-songs — 
To be a teacher of the Women. 



So 
Arjuna entered, unto no one known. 

Last was there seen, fast pacing to the Gate 
Another Pandu Lord, like the gold Sun 
From clouds emerging. Drawing nigh, his gaze 
Marked heedfully the horses. Noting this 
The Matsya Chief spake to his courtiers : 
" I marvel whence he comes, this goodly man 
Who eyes our steeds so steadfastly ; go ye ! 
Bid him approach, he wears a warlike air ! " 

Therewith was Nakula led anigh ; and said : 
"Victory, great King, to thee, with health and 

peace ! 
I am a horse-tamer whom Lords have praised 
In times gone by ; new service now I seek ; 
Make me thy stable-keeper." 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 24 1 

" I were fain," 
The King replied : " but what skill boastest thou ? 
Whence wendest thou to us, how art thou called ? " 

The Prince said : " Satrukarshan I Harvester 

Of slaughtered foes ! I served great Yudhisthir, 

The eldest of our Pandavas. I kept 

His stables ; for I know the hearts of steeds 

To break colts in, and cure the faults of them ; 

To bleed and fire and physic them ; to nurse 

Their strength and speed, and even the wildest mares 

To gentle all. My name is Granthika." 

Virata said, '' I take thee ; Granthika ! 
Have charge of all my horses." 

Thus he too, 
Passed into service of the Court unknown. 

[The next section relates how the disguised Princes 
spent their time in King Virata's Court; secretly assist- 
ing each other, "as much hidden as if once more in the 
womb." Yudhisthira, by dice-playing, keeps the courtiers 
amused, and " sitting like birds tied on a stick ; " Arjuna 

16 



242 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

provides the Five with food and clothes ; Sahadev with 
milk and curds ; Nakula with money, gained by horse- 
breaking ; Bhima, who distinguishes himself greatly at 
wrestling and lighting, brings credit on his kinsmen ; and 
all watch anxiously over the safety of Draupadi, who, during 
ten months, lives in the Palace, well-treated by Queen 
Sudeshna, but distressed at the menial condition of the 
Princes, and because of her separation from them. Towards 
the close of this year of concealment a terrible danger 
threatens the Pandu Queen, which is narrated as follows : ] 

It fell at the year's end, that Kichaka, 

The Captain of the armies of the King, 

Cast eyes on Draupadi ; and seeing her 

Fair as an Apsara, pacing with gait 

Of Goddess, heavenly-sweet — burned for her love, 

Smitten by Kama's shaft. Then to the Queen, 

His sister, spake he : " Never until now. 

Marked I this slave ; but now she maddens me 

With that dark face, as new wine maddens men ! 

Who is she ? and whence sprang she ? and who owns 

This Pearl of Shes ? T am become her thrall : 

Sick unto death I am for her, and she 

My only medicine 1 Thy waiting wench — 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE, 243 

If she be tliine — was never born to serve I 
Divine she seems, and fitter to command 
Kingdoms and kings ! Sister, give me the girl ! 
She shall be Mistress in my Palace, decked 
With gold and gems, royally lodged and fed, 
Shall ride on elephants ! " 

Virata's wife, 
I^othing gainsaying, Kichaka sought soon 
The Kuru Queen, and so accosted lier 
As might some fawning jackal in the woods 
Accost a lioness. " Celestial one ! 
Whose, and who art thou ? Lovely, winsome face ! 
Whence didst thou shine upon us ? Tell me ! Sure 
Never were seen such charms, never beheld 
Such countenance, bright as the moon at full ; 
Such brows like bows, such eyes like lotus-leaves, 
Such limbs, such hips, such feet, such faultless form ! 
Art tliou great Lakhshmi of the Lilies, Sweet ? 
Or Eati, Kama's Queen ; or Hri, or Sri ; 
Kirti, or Kanti, Fairest ? Thou with breasts 
So deep, so round, so sister-like, so close. 
Worthy to bind with gold ! Ah, lotus buds ! 
Those are as barbs of Kama, piercing me 1 



244 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Thy waist, a span to clasp — thy smooth soft flesh 

Dimpled with folds — thy sides rounded and dark 

As river-banks — each loveliness in turn 

Consumeth me with fire of love and hope 

Like a wood burning ! Dear one, quench this flame ! 

Be the kind cloud, laden with rain, which cools ! 

Heal where thy night-black eyes have hurt so deep ! 

Eestore me, for thou mayest ! Dwell no more 

In misery ill-befitting ; wealth is thine, 

And ease and joy, if thou dost deign to take, 

"With luxury of wine cups, garlands, robes. 

See ! I will put away those wives I have. 

For thy sweet sake : they shall be slaves to thee ; 

And I will be thy slave — thy faithfullest — 

Ever obeying every little word 

Those soft lips speak ! " 

Draupadi answered : " Shame 
Forbids thee, Senapati ! to desire 
A serving-maid of low degree, a slave 
Who dresses hair. Moreover, be this known, 
I am a wedded woman — so, 't is sin ! 
And thou dost turn thy heart towards infamies ! 
If thou beest great, thou owest to thy state 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 245 

Good deeds, and noble life : but sinful men 

Blind by desire — win woe, and dire disgrace." 

Then Kichaka, by those high words unmoved, 
O'ermastered, reckless, lost — even while he knew 

Fatal his fault and every wise condemned 

Spake insolent : " 111 it beseemeth thee. 

Fair though thou art, and with a face like Heaven, 

To slight me, who am fall'n to be thy thrall ! 

Night-eyed Enchantress ! if thou scornest one 

So gently spoken, thou wilt grieve for it I 

Know, Damsel with the brows ! this kingdom's head 

Is Kichaka, not old Virata : I 

Hold up the land ! 't is I am Lord and Chief, 

With none to mate my strength, my will, my wealth ; 

Nor any better-favored ! Art thou mad. 

Proffered full share of all my luxury. 

To cling to servitude ? Take rather, girl. 

Humbly this love I give, and have with me 

What women seek — else shrewdly shalt thou fare ! " 

Thus arrogantly wooed, the proud Princess 
Answered, indignant : " Sutaputra ! Shame ! 
Stay thy fool's tongue forthwith — if life be dear ! 
Five Gandharvas there be who watch o'er me : 



246 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Thou can'st not have me — they will slay thee ! Pause ! 

Tread not a path hard to be trod, a path 

Which brings thee to thy end. Thou guilty Lord ! 

Thou art a child, standing on the sea's brink, 

Who thinks to cross, and dips one foolish foot : 

Yet could'st thou cross, or could'st thou soar in air. 

Or creep into the deepest underworld. 

Thou would'st not so escape the wrath of those 

Who God-like guard me ! Why, then, Kichaka, 

Solicit me, like the sick man that prays 

For night to come, when night must make him die ? 

Wherefore desire me, high beyond thy reach 

As the moon is for which an infant's hands 

Stretch from his mother's lap ! 1 Thou seekest death ! 

Hide where thou wilt, lost art thou, Kichaka, 

Except sense serves thee yet to save thyself." 

Kichaka, thus denied, with longings wild, 
Hastes to Sudeshna, crying : " Sister mine. 
Contrive that thy Sairindhri come to me : 
Find me some way to win this sweet-voiced wench — 
Find, or 1 die, Sudeshna ! " 

1 Notable is the antiquity of this phrase ! The original runs: 
^' Kim maturanke sayito yatha Sisuschandran jighrikshuriva manyase 
hi mdn.^' 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 247 

So the Queen, 
Pitying his passion, said " Look now, provide 
Cakes and flower-wine for me against the feast, 
And I will send my woman to thy house, 
Bidding her fetch the wine. Then, being there, 
Alone, quiet, unseen — if thou may'st win. 
Soothe her, and win her. Brother, she is thine." 

Then Kichaka strained wine, brewed rich and stronor 
For royal cups, and set his deftest cooks 
To dress rare meats and sweets : which being done, 
Sudeshna spake : " Arise, Sairindhri ! run, 
I am athirst ! Lord Kichaka hath wine : 
Go to his house, and bring me of his wine." 

Quoth Draupadi : " Queen, I may not go ! 
Thou knowest that he is shameless ! Noble Queen, 
I will not be a common woman here, 
False to my Lords. Keep thou in mind, dear Queen, 
All thou did'st promise. This most wicked man. 
Mad with his wish for me, will, seeino; me, 
Attempt foul wrong. Command me not to go ! 
Thou hast, good Majesty, full many a maid: 
Bid one of these fetch wine ! " 



248 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Sadeslma said : 
" Surely he will not harm thee, sent by me ! " 
And therewith in her hands the patra laid, 
Golden, with lid of gold, which Draupadi 
Trembling and weeping took, and as she went 
She prayed this prayer : " Since I am innocent 
Of any wifely sin, let innocence 
Protect me now, and shield from Kichaka." 
Thus spake she, bending low to Surya : 
Whereon the God a Eakshasa sent down 
To guard her. 

But when Kichaka beheld 
Draupadi coming, like a frightened deer, 
Up sprang he, joyous as the traveller 
Who sees the boat will bear him o'er the stream. 

" thou with glossy braided locks ! " he cried, 
" Welcome, thrice welcome ! Truly this long night 
Hath brought a blissful day, since thou art here 
To live the Mistress of my House, Smile now ! 
Say thou wilt pleasure me ; and bid me bring 
Bangles and chains of gold, with golden rings 
Fair- wrought and wonderful, rubies and pearls, 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 249 

And rich gilt cloths and skins of deer. See here, 
How soft thy couch will be ! Sit by me, Dear, 
And drink of honey- wine, and " 

Draupadi 
Brake in, impatient : " 'T is the Queen hath sent. 
She Jiade me ask for wine : she is athirst ; 
Speedily give, and let me go ! " 

At this 
Says Kichaka : " My Lotus ! some one else 
Shall carry to the Queen ! " therewith he grasped 
Draupadi's arm, but, feeling that vile touch 
The Princess cried aloud : " As never once 
Swerved I from wedded duty, ev'n in thought, 
So by my truth of heart 'scape I thee now ; 
And I shall live to see thee, daring wretch, 
Eoll in the dust, a carcass." 

a 

Hearing that, 
Furious he seized her cloth and strove to hold. 
But bursting from his hands, scornful, incensed, 
Not brookincj such intolerable wroncr, 
The angry Lady — breathing hard and quick — 



250 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Struck him and felled him, like a root-cut tree. 

Then, while he sprawled, she turned and ran at speed 

Straight for the Hall where King Virata sat 

With Yudhisthira, Bhima, and the Court. 

But, flying thus, that guilty Lord enraged 

Eose, followed her, and in the full Divan 

Caught her long hair, and dragged her down, and spurned 

Her hody with his foot, in the King's sight. 

In sight of Bhima and of Yudhisthir. 

With leaping hearts those Pandu Princes there 

Saw the foul deed ; and Bhima gnashed his teeth 

Paging to kill, and knit his angry brows : 

Sweat sprang on him, flame sparkled from his eyes, 

With wrath he quaked, his hands covered his mouth, 

He would have started forth and slain that Lord. * 

But Yudhisthira, wiser, squeezed his thumbs 

Commanding peace, lest all be known ; and when 

Like elephant in must Bhima glared hard. 

The elder Prince spake masterful, " Dost seek 

Trees to uproot for fuel, burly Cook ! 

Go find and fell them out of doors, not here ! " 

So Bhima choked liis rage ; but Draupadi 

With shame and anger wild — yet loath to break 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 25 I 

Their secret — standing at the entrance-place, 

Cried loud, in tears : " Lords, ye have seen to-day 

Spurned by the feet of yon vile Matsyan 

The wife of those whose foes, in time gone by,' 

Dared not to sleep — no, not if four broad realms 

Lay between them and vengeance. Ye have seen 

Her outraged who hath champions strong enough 

To shatter all your state — if they would strike. 

Well for ye is it that these warriors skulk ; . 

Well for ye that their force immeasurable 

Sleeps like an eunuch's spirit, witnessing 

Their dear chaste Lady beaten as a drab ! 

Thou too, King ! no King thou shewest thyself, 

Else had'st thou nowise suffered that this man. 

Base Thief — not Army-Chief — should flout me thus 

In thy full Court ! Dishonored are ye all 

Not knowing right, nor virtue ! — infamous 

The throne ye serve ; and ye who serve the throne !" 



Then spake the troubled King : " We have not known 
Your cause of quarrel : " and the Courtiers said, 
" Truly the large-eyed One hath wrong herein ; 
Faultless to view she is — most beautiful 1 " 



252 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

But Yiidhisthira, calm in wrath, addressed 
His beauteous wife : " Sairindhri I tarry not ! 
Go to the Queen. The wives of heroes bear 
Distress for those they love, and so attain. 
Those Godlike Lords of thine choose not this hour 
To wreak their ire ; yet they will choose. Weep not 
Nor play the actress here ! Tliy Gandharvas 
Will do thee pleasure, and requite this man." < 

So went she grieved, her long hair loose, her eyes 
Eeddened with weeping, to Sudeshna's bower, 
And told the deeds of Kichaka. Bat when 
The Queen had said, " If he has done this thing 
He should be shent," the sobbing Princess cried, 
" Nay ! those he wronged shall slay him ! two days hence 
I tliink his soul will sink to Yamalok." 

And when she readied her room and stripped to bathe 
Her fairest body, fell she to hot thought, 
Musing : " What shall I do ? Where go ? What plan 
To kill this Lord ? " and as she mused, the name 
Of Bhima came : " Bhima w411 aid — none else 
Save Bhima can achieve ! " So she arose 
And sought out Bhima in his cooking-place, 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 253 

Approaching as a three-year cow her bull 

In season, or a lien-crane towards its mate 

At pairing time; and like a jungle-vine 

Clasping a Sal on Gomti's wooded hanks ; 

Or like a fondling lioness that wakes 

Her maned lord in the woods, so Draupadi 

Cast her long arms round Bhima, and so roused : 

And him addressing, with a voice as sweet 

As the mid-notes of vina, cried : " Arise ! 

Sleepest thou now ? or art thou dead, indeed, 

Suffering that man to live who shamed thy wife ? " 

Then Bhima, sitting up upon his bed, 

Inquired, " What would'st thou?" And in whispered 

WTath 
The Princess of Panchfda told anew 
Her tale of shame ; and broke to bitter words, 
Lamenting sore that Yudhisthir should live 
The King's hired dicer, careless of her fame ; 
And great Arjuna lay his bow aside 
To wear armlets and ear-rings, and to sit 
The women's singing-master ; Sahadev 
A cow-herd in the pens, all weaponless ; 
And Nakula training horses in the stalls. 



254 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

" Thou, Bhima's self, defamed to Vallava 

To cook, cut wood, and fight wild beasts for sport ! 

Nay, T, the Queen I" so she went on, "beguiled 

By Yudhisthira's fault to go in garb 

Of waiting-woman, live at orders, bear 

All I have borne, unrighted. See ! these hands 

Blistered with pounding sandal — hands of one 

Who never once before in all her life 

Touched pestle, save for Kiinti, now I stand 

Daily before the door a patient slave 

Trembling to learn if I have pounded well ! 

What have I wrought to vex the Gods so much ? 

It is not meet for me longer to live ! 

• Then Bhima, weeping, lifted to his face 
Those tender hands of Draupadi, thus scored 
With daily toil, and sorrowful replied : 

" It shames our name, it mocks our strength, to see 
These dear worn hands ! I would have flooded all 
With blood, but Yudhisthira's glance forbade. 
That we dwell here dissembling — that these men 
Still breathe — sticks like a spear-blade in my heart. 
Yet grieve not thus ! If Yudhisthira heard, 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 255 

Or Arjun, or the Twins, they would not live, 
And I should weary then of living ! Wait ! 
Bear our fates patiently ! a little more — 
Half of one moon — and thou art Queen again ! " 

But Draupadi made answer : " Nay, one day 
Is all too long ! I cannot wait I Rise now I 
Act, or I die ! The Queen, jealous of me, 
Aids Kichaka ; and he — when I say ' Pool ! 
I. am the wife of five great Gandharvas, 
Their wrath will crush thee ! ' — Kichaka replies, 
' Small fear have I of thy five Gandharvas, 
Sweetest Sairindhri ! I can match in fight 
A lakh of such ! Therefore, too fearful, yield ! ' 
At that the proud Lord laughs — lustful and rich. 
Reckless and villanous — and if we wait. 
This man will seize some chance, and master me ; 
Then must I die ; then prudence will seem vile ; 
Then all is lost ; with loss of name and fame. 
Bhima ! with thine own eyes thou did'st see 
Th' adulterer spurn me. Kill him, dear strong Lord ! 
Break him to fragments ! shatter him to shards 
As when a rock crushes a chatty ! Kill ! 
If he sees one more sunrise I will mix 



256 FROM THE SANSKRIT, 

Poison with what I drink, and end : for Death 
Were better than the arms of Kichaka ! " 

She flung on Bhima's neck, shedding hot tears ; 
And Bhima, all to comfort her, spake fair. 
Wiping the drops away. Then, silent mused, 
Thinking of Kichaka ; and wdiile he thought 
He licked the corners of his mouth, made dry 
By fire of rage. At last he rose and said, 

'' See ! I will do this thing thou askest ! Go, 
Put by all signs of sorrow : find that man ! 
The Dancing-chamber which the King hath built 
By day is used for Nautchnees, but at night 
Is empty, and a well-carved bed stands there. 
That is the place where I will send his soul 
Where those have gone who did beget this dog. 
Appoint he meet thee there to-night ; but so 
That others shall not hear nor spy." 

Full soon 
Kichaka speaks with her — he wandered wide 
To seek her — saying this : " I struck thee, girl ! 
Yesterday in full Court before the throne. 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 257 

Now knowest thou well there is no Lord save 
Who am the Captam of the troops, and Chief 
In gray Virata's City. Take me, then ! 
Have thou for slave the master of this state • 
And I will give thee, Fairest ! servants, cars, 
Mules, and a hundred nishkas of red gold. 
Shall this thing be ? " 

Draupadi answered : " Yes, 
This thing shall be, sith thou must have it so ; 
But only if none know — none of thy friends : 
I am in terror of my Gandharvas. 
Promise it shall be secret, and I yield ! " 

" Oh, thou of loveliest limbs ! " quoth Kichaka, 

" Gladly I promise — I am thrall to thee ! 

To what good meeting-place should I repair. 

Where those — thy dreadful Five — shall nought discern ? " 

Draupadi said : " There is the Dancing Hall 
Built by the King, where Nautchnees play by day ; 
But leave it free at nights. Thither repair 
When the dark falls ; my husbands do not know 
That spot : we shall be quit of censure there." 

17 



258 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

But when, apart, she mused those uttered words. 
That she should speak them, and the hearer live — 
The afternoon seemed like a long slow moon, 
So grievous 't was to await ! And, unto him 
The watches of that day seemed without end. 
So was he glad and keen, not knowing Death 
Had come to call him in Sairindhri dress. 
Eeft of his wits, he plumed himself for love, 
Embellishing, anointing, tricking out 
With garlands, perfumes, ornaments — at heart 
Aye musing on her great dark eyes, her limbs 
Smooth as banana-stems, her shining hair. 
And stately ste^D. Like a spent lamp which flares 
Before the flame dies down, so Kichaka 
Bore himself brighter, as his proud heart drew 
Nearer the stroke of Fate. 

But Draupadi, 
Beautiful with her wrath, sought Bhima out 
And whispered : " What thou badest I have done : 
Kichaka meets me in the dancing-hall 
To-night, when darkness falls. He comes alone. 
Slay him there, Bhima ! Slay him, dear my Lord, 
That hast the mighty arms ! Kill this vain fool. 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 259 

Drunk with vile pride. Deal with him, Kunti's Son, 

As doth an elephant with vilva-fruits, 

So shalt thou stay these tears, and purge my shame ! " 



Bhima replied : " Thou hast done well ! I craved 
Nought better than such tidings. Now my soul 
Is glad again, as when in days bygone 
I slew Hidimba. Listen ! Here, I swear 
By thine own truth, and by my Brothers' lives, 
And by great Dharma, I will kill this wretch 
As Indra slaughtered Vritra. Sit at peace ! 
This night his head shall be even as vilva-fruit 
Whereon an elephant hath trampled 1 " 

So 
At nightfall, early, having wrapped himself 
In woman's garb, went Bhima to the Hall, 
And lay in darkness on the couch, as lies 
A tiger in the tiger-grass, close-hid, 
Glaring, expectant till the buck shall pass. 



Then Kichaka — all trim and scented — trips 



260 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

To the appointed spot, full of his bliss 

To meet that peerless Queen. He enters in — 

Gropes in the gloom — this Lord of sinful soul — 

Feeling his way toward Bhima on the bed : 

Toward Bhima, burning? fierce with shame and rag^e — 

Toward Bhima, huge and dreadful — as a moth 

Flutters into a flame, as foolish deer 

Play towards the cheetah's lair. The bed he finds ; 

Sees in the dark a form, and, smilingly 

He lisps : " My Fair ! thou with the eyes ! art here ? 

Know, I have set apart rich gifts for thee ; 

Jew^els and gold, and inner chambers stored ' 

With scarlet cloths and carpets ; and a throng 

Of slaves to serve our sports and pleasures ! ISTow 

Come I — thy humble slave ! though women say 

None is like Kichaka for face and grace ! " 



Then Bhima from the couch his answering voice 
Belittled, while he said : " Fortunate Lord, 
To be so great and have such praise ! In truth 
A winning way is thine, and conquering hand — 
Come nearer, that I kiss them ! Ah, no doubt, 
None can resist so sweet a Lord ! " 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 261 

And while 
Kichaka marvelled at those accents rough, 
Suddenly started Bhima from the couch 
Thunderously crying, " Now thou diest, Dog ! 
Now shall thy carcass roll in dust, and leave 
Peace to Sairindhris and to us ! " Therewith 
Caught he the hair of Kichaka, entwined 
With flower-wreaths, bent him down, and seized his neck ; 
But quick, that Lord, tearing his locks away. 
Grappled the Pandu Prince. So, fierce they close 
In deadly strife, as when two lions meet. 
Or wild bull elephants. Their huge arms rose 
Like hooded cobras striking ; nails and teeth 
Helped hands and feet in the hot conflict. Now 
One would roll uppermost, another now : 
For Bhima flung down Kichaka, but he 
Slipped from beneath, and hurled his enemy 
Back overhand — with crash of joint and bone 
As when the bamboos crack in hurricanes : 
But Bhima gripped again, and beat the knees 
From under Kichaka, so that both fell 
Locked chest to chest, roaring in wrath, the foam 
Upon their lips, fire flashing from their eyes, 



262 FROM THE SANSKRIT. 

Eaging to slay each other in that gloom. 

Loud was the noise and clatter of the fight; 

Till, knitting close his giant arms, the Prince 

Drew tight against his breast Kichaka's breast, 

Pressing the life-breath out ; and — waxin^ stronor. 

As the Adulterer waned — shifted one hand 

To Kichaka's strained throat, one to his hair. 

The while with feet and knees he trampled him ; 

Whereat, overcome and helpless, Kichaka 

Groaned and fell prone — at which the Pandu stamped 

His body limp, and broke his limbs, and cast 

The shapeless carcass back, a lump of Death. 

Thereon Bhima arose, all shaking still 
With stress of combat, red with blood, and hoarse 
By cries of rage. " Come hither ! come," said he, 
" Thou Princess of Panchala ! Witness here 
What thing it is who wrought to do thee shame." 

Then Draupadi, lighting a torch, strode in 
And saw the foot of Bhima planted hard 
On Kichaka's torn corpse ; and how he lay 
Bloody and broken by the carven bed ; 



A QUEEN'S REVENGE. 263 

Whereon she called the keepers of the Hall, 
Saymg : " Enter ! enter ! see how Kichaka, 
Who spurned me, and who sought to shame me, lies 
Slain by my Gandharvas 1 " 



THE END. 



Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications. 
MR. EDWIN ARNOLD'S WRITINGS. 

THE SONG CELESTIAL; 

OR, BHAGAVAD-GITA, 

(From the Mahabharata), Being a Discourse between Arjuna, 
Prince of India, and The Supreme Being under the Form of 
Krishna. Translated from the Sanskrit Text by Edwin 
Arnold, M.A., author of " The Light of Asia," " Pearls of 
the Faith," " Indian Idylls," " India Revisited," etc. 

i6mo. Cloth. Price, $i.oo. 



Mr. ArnJd is not in the least disposed to sleep upon the laurels that " The 
Lisjht of Asia" won for him. He has ever since that brilliant performance, the 
success of which was owing quite as much to its sensuous as to its supersensuous 
elements, been making hay while the sun of popular favor has been shining 
warmly on his work. The episodic poem he has now translated is one of the 
best known of all the products of the Indian mind. It was tlie darling of the 
New England Transcendentalists half a century ago, in the earlier prose transla- 
tions. It is an episode in the sixth book of the enormous Hindu epic, the Ma- 
habliarata. In India, Mr, Arnold tells us, it enjoys immense popularity, and is 
reckoned one of the " five jewels " of Devanagiri literature. To translate a poem 
of this sort into melodious English verse that should represent at all adequately 
the subtile distinctions of the original was, certainly, a daring thing for Mr. Ar- 
nold to attempt ; and the manner of his doing it is extremely creditable to his 
ability. Some of the lyrical passages in the poem are rendered with great force 
and beautv. — Christian Register. 

The wonderful popularity of Mr. Arnold's " Light of Asia " and " Pearls of 
the Faith," and his translations from Oriental literature, will secure a welcome 
for this new volume. " The Song Celestial," or Bhagavad-Gita, is a remarkable 
Sanskrit poem, the subject of which is a discourse between Arjuna, Prince of 
India, and the Supreme Being under the form of Krishna._ It is a poem of great 
popularity and authority in India, and has been translated into the French, Latin, 
and Italian by students of Oriental literature. Two or more English translations 
have appeared before this of Mr. Arnold. No doubt the present version vili 
have a thousand readers where the former English versions have secured a hun- 
dred, Mr. Arnold's popularity in this line being beyond that of any other transla- 
tor. Of the teaching of "The Song Celestial," Mr. Arnold says : "In plain but 
noble language it unfolds a philosophical system which remains to this day the 
prevailing Brahmanic belief. So lofty are many of its declarations, so sublime 
its aspirations, so pure and tender its piety, that Schlegel, after his study of the 
poem, breaks forth into an outburst of delight and praise toward its unknown 
author " Mr. Arnold places the date of the poem at about the third century 
after Christ, and adds : " Perhaps there are really echoes in this Brahmanic 
poem of the lessons of Galilee and of the Syrian incarnation." — The Untversalist, 



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MR. EDWIN ARNOLD^S WRITINGS. 

PEARLS OF~ThE FAITH; 

Or, ISLAM'S ROSARY. 

Being the " Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of Allah." 
With Comments in Verse from Various Oriental Sources 
(as made by an Indian Mussulman). 

By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A. 

One volume. i6mo. Cloth. Price $i oo. 



" I have thus at length finished the Oriental trilogy which I designed. In my 
Indian ' Song of Songs ' I sought to transfer to English poetry a subtle and lovely 
Sanskrit idyll of the Hindu theology. In my ' Light of Asia ' I related the story, 
and displayed the gentle and far-reaching doctrines of that great Hindu prince 
who founded Buddhism. I have tried to present here, in the simple, familiar, 
and credulous but earnest spirit and manner of Islam, and from its own points of 
view, some of the thoughts and beliefs of the followers of the notable Prophet 
of Arabia." — Extract from the A uthor's Preface. 

. " No one can fail to be astonished at the extraordinary variety and beauty of 
the poems, which seem to breathe the calmer and purer faith of a race which 
aspires to the victories of moral greatness rather than to the supremacy of the 
sword. Indeed, if there is a criticism to be made on this work of the poet of 
Eastern morality, it is one which applies equally to 'The Light of Asia 'and to 
' The Song ( f Songs.' He describes religions not as they are, but as they might 
be, if all men were better ; and he conveys unconsciously the impression that thi.s 
exquisite delicacy of moral sense, this broad and pervading yet tender and true 
love for our fellow-creatures, which his gentle pen has so often and so well de- 
lineated, are the actual motives and life-principles of millions of Eastern men 
to-day." — The Critic. 

" In several instances, the worth is considerable, and those who are ready to 
welcome good teaching, no matter what be the channel through which it comes, 
will enjoy many of these moral ballads and devotional poems. They represent 
the better side of Islam. They are the echo of a Voice that spoke to all the world 
long before Mohammed was born." — The Churchvian. 



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Messrs. Roberts BrotJiers' Publications. 
MR. EDWIN ARNOLD'S WRITINGS. 

INDIAN IDYLLS. 

FROM THE SANSKRIT OF THE " MAHABHARATA." 
By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A. 

One Volume. i6mo. Cloth. Price $i.oo. 



" It would be difficult to find nobler flights of the imagination, sweeter ideals of 
human affection and devotion, and more poetic conceptions of human relations, 
than are contained in this volume. It is a chapter taken from the heart of the 
Indian * Ma'.'abharata,' one of the noblest intellectual achievements which has 
yet been made by any race. Most Western readers not familiar with Indian 
literature have probably thought of it, if they have thought at all, as a mass of 
extravagance, fantasy, and distorted imagination. That it has these defects is un- 
questioned, but it must be remembered that it is as old as the Iliad, and seven 
times as great in bulk as the whole volume of Homer's writings. It is not, there- 
fore, an orderly and symmetrically developed epic ; it is rather a vast mine of 
poetic thought, full of all manner of strange and beautiful, and sometimes repul- 
sive things, but its riches are so great that the Western world cannot afford to 
remain ignorant of them. Mr. Arnold has selected a few of the most beautiful 
incidents in the poem, which have both completeness and adaptation for Western 
readers, and has put them into his easy, fluent, if not always elegant verse ; his 
selection has evidently been a wise one, since the whole volume is replete with a 
strange beauty of sentiment and expression. Whatever may be the defects of 
Mr. Arnold's verse, no one can afford to leave this volume unread who wishes to 
know something of the lofty and noble gifts of the Indian mind wlien it first gained 
self-consciousness and found expression for itself in its vast mythology." — 
Christian Union. 

" These idylls are all beautiful, all deeply marked with the sweet and gentle 
philosophy which appears to have dominated the Hindu mind even from the 
earliest times. . . . And Mr. Arnold has clothed these charming and tender epi- 
sodes in a verse whose smooth and graceful flow accords most happily with his 
subjects." — New York Tribune. 



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Messrs Roberts Brothers Publicatio7ts. 
MR. EDWIN ARNOLD'S "WRITINGS. 

THE SECRET OF DEATH. 

Being a Version, in a a Opiuai ina jVu'vel Form, of the " Katha 
Upanishad," from the Sanskrit, with some Collected Poems. 

By EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A. 

One Volume. i6mo. Cloth. Price ^i.oo. 



" It was one of the distinguishing notes of ' The Light of Asia ' that it pre- 
sented the spirit of Oriental thought not as it appeared to the European inteUigence, 
but as it impressed itse'*^ upon the Hindu ; and in ' The Secret of Death ' this 
systematic realization of the Asiatic cast of mind is even more clearly manifest. 
. . . The legend is o£ Nachiketas, the son of Gautama, who, having obtained the 
promise of three boons from Yama, god of Death, asks of the divinity knowledge 
of the great problems of existence. In answer to this we have an exposition of 
the Brahmanical system of Pantheism to which the Upanishads are largely 
devoted. If we cannot find in this speculation the simplicity and insight, still less 
the consoling hope and the lofty morality, which the poet admires, we can at all 
events value the beauty and compactness of phrase, the felicity of imagery' and the 
sustained dignity of tone in which the strange verse of the Old World is rehearsed 
by this accomplished interpreter. The majestic calm which broods over the deeps 
of the Pundit's philosophy, and the slow, lingering richness of the poetry of a 
venerable and splendid antiquity, are reproduced with marvellous skill." — The 
New York Tribtote. 



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